Top 10 News Items 1/31-2/4: Jobs Report Adversely Impacted by Severe Winter Weather, Stocks Shrug at Unrest in Egypt, Q4 Earnings Season Winding Down
Down)
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. The monthly jobs report on Friday of this week was, to put it simply, a little odd as wide misses in both the nonfarm and private sector payrolls figures are being blamed on severe winter weather across much of the country. The rise in nonfarm payrolls came in at 36,000, well below the 146,000 economists were looking for, while the private sector number came in at 50,000, vs. an estimate of 145,000. The Labor Department also reported that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent in January, far lower than the economist estimate of a slight rise to 9.5 percent.
2. Stocks rose more than 2% this week despite intensifying unrest in Egypt this week. While protests broke out across the country last week, reports of widespread violence were heard this week. Pro-Mubarak and anti-Mubarak forces began physically fighting this week, causing the President to announce that he would not run for re-election and that his government would resign.
3. The recent flood of big name Q4 earnings reports slowed to a trickle this week; quarterly results came out of: Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Anadarko (NYSE: APC), Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB), UPS (NYSE: UPS), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA), Visa (NYSE: V), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), CVS (NYSE: CVS), MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS).
4. A number of deals were announced this week: AMB (NYSE: AMB) and ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) will combine in a $14 billion deal, Pre-Paid Legal (NYSE: PPD) will be taken private for $66.50/share, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) agreed to buy NaviSite (Nasdaq: NAVI) in a $230 million deal, Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) said it will buy Fronteer Gold (NYSE: FRG) for C$14/share in cash, or about C$2.3 billion, and Answers.com (Nasdaq: ANSW) will be bought for $10.50/share in cash.
5. Brent crude oil breached the $100 per barrel level for the first time since October of 2008. While many traders assume the recent rise in oil has been tied to the turmoil in Egypt, one JPMorgan strategist suggested that the price is currently being determined by simple supply and demand.
6. Shares of Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) tumbled more than 72% on Tuesday as the FDA showed concern related to the long-term safety profile of the company's Contrave. Specifically, the FDA issued a complete response letter for Contrave, a treatment for obesity. Any trader that purchased Orexigen shares on the weakness would be jumping for joy today, as the stock rose 7% on Wednesday, another 9.7% on Thursday and a sharp 22% on Friday.
7. Shares of Borders (NYSE: BGP) tumbled nearly 66% this week as a number of reports throughout the week suggested that the company could be closer and closer to bankruptcy. The latest on Tuesday rumored that the company could file as soon as next week.
8. Retail sales for the month of January were released this week, with the International Council of Shopping Centers showing that same-store sales rose 4.4% over the month, much better than the 1.5-2% the firm had been expecting. Click here to see a summary of some of the more notable retail reports.
9. Shares of BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) rose more than 12% on Thursday after, with the company's January retail sales report, the company announced that it is currently considering strategic alternatives including a possible sale.
10. Elsewhere on the economic data front: consumer spending rose 0.7%, construction spending was down 2.5%, worse than the up 0.1% economists had been looking for, jobless claims fell to 415,000 and continuing claims pushed dangerously close to the 4 million mark and nonfarm productivity came in at 2.6%, better than the 2.0% the Street had been looking for.
Get immediate access to market moving news and alerts with StreetInsider.com Premium - FREE TRIAL!
1. The monthly jobs report on Friday of this week was, to put it simply, a little odd as wide misses in both the nonfarm and private sector payrolls figures are being blamed on severe winter weather across much of the country. The rise in nonfarm payrolls came in at 36,000, well below the 146,000 economists were looking for, while the private sector number came in at 50,000, vs. an estimate of 145,000. The Labor Department also reported that the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent in January, far lower than the economist estimate of a slight rise to 9.5 percent.
2. Stocks rose more than 2% this week despite intensifying unrest in Egypt this week. While protests broke out across the country last week, reports of widespread violence were heard this week. Pro-Mubarak and anti-Mubarak forces began physically fighting this week, causing the President to announce that he would not run for re-election and that his government would resign.
3. The recent flood of big name Q4 earnings reports slowed to a trickle this week; quarterly results came out of: Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Anadarko (NYSE: APC), Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB), UPS (NYSE: UPS), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA), Visa (NYSE: V), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), CVS (NYSE: CVS), MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS).
4. A number of deals were announced this week: AMB (NYSE: AMB) and ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) will combine in a $14 billion deal, Pre-Paid Legal (NYSE: PPD) will be taken private for $66.50/share, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) agreed to buy NaviSite (Nasdaq: NAVI) in a $230 million deal, Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) said it will buy Fronteer Gold (NYSE: FRG) for C$14/share in cash, or about C$2.3 billion, and Answers.com (Nasdaq: ANSW) will be bought for $10.50/share in cash.
5. Brent crude oil breached the $100 per barrel level for the first time since October of 2008. While many traders assume the recent rise in oil has been tied to the turmoil in Egypt, one JPMorgan strategist suggested that the price is currently being determined by simple supply and demand.
6. Shares of Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) tumbled more than 72% on Tuesday as the FDA showed concern related to the long-term safety profile of the company's Contrave. Specifically, the FDA issued a complete response letter for Contrave, a treatment for obesity. Any trader that purchased Orexigen shares on the weakness would be jumping for joy today, as the stock rose 7% on Wednesday, another 9.7% on Thursday and a sharp 22% on Friday.
7. Shares of Borders (NYSE: BGP) tumbled nearly 66% this week as a number of reports throughout the week suggested that the company could be closer and closer to bankruptcy. The latest on Tuesday rumored that the company could file as soon as next week.
8. Retail sales for the month of January were released this week, with the International Council of Shopping Centers showing that same-store sales rose 4.4% over the month, much better than the 1.5-2% the firm had been expecting. Click here to see a summary of some of the more notable retail reports.
9. Shares of BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) rose more than 12% on Thursday after, with the company's January retail sales report, the company announced that it is currently considering strategic alternatives including a possible sale.
10. Elsewhere on the economic data front: consumer spending rose 0.7%, construction spending was down 2.5%, worse than the up 0.1% economists had been looking for, jobless claims fell to 415,000 and continuing claims pushed dangerously close to the 4 million mark and nonfarm productivity came in at 2.6%, better than the 2.0% the Street had been looking for.
Get immediate access to market moving news and alerts with StreetInsider.com Premium - FREE TRIAL!
You May Also Be Interested In
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Special ReportsRelated Entities
JPMorgan, Nonfarm Payrolls, StreetInsider.com Top 10 News Items for the Week, Crude Oil, Bankruptcy, Earnings, Pre-Paid Legal Takeover, Time Warner Cable/NaviSite, Fronteer Gold/Newmont MiningSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
