Stocks twisted in two-sided action today, as Wall Street reacted to a mixed January jobs report and settled into consolidation mode after early-week gains landed the major averages at fresh 2 1/2 year highs. Mostly improved earnings reports continue to support broad-market gains.
Commodities finished trading lower as crude oil futures succumbed to bearish investor sentiment after a week that saw solid gains for the March contract. Gold finished lower while copper and silver show some signs of life.
Light, sweet crude oil for March delivery finished down $1.51, or 1.7%, to $89.03 a barrel. In other energy futures, heating oil was down 1.41% to $2.72 a gallon while natural gas was down 0.37% to $4.32 per million British thermal units.
Meanwhile, gold futures slipped to close lower as investors weighed a hodgepodge of news, including Egypt protests, a stronger dollar and yesterday's rally.
Gold for February delivery finished down 0.3% to $1,349 an ounce. In other metal futures, silver was up $0.46 to $29.19 a troy ounce while copper finished up 1.08% to $4.59.
The U.S. economy added a much fewer-than-expected 36,000 new jobs last month, a number partly influenced by bad weather in many parts of the country, said some analysts. But the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 9%, the lowest since April 2009. The data comes after a speech yesterday afternoon by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke in which he commented on the slow growth in jobs.
In a speech Thursday, the Fed chairman said stronger payroll data and a drop in the unemployment rate could be expected soon. But he also said that the slow job market improvement so far is holding back the broader economic recovery.
In company news:
Cisco Systems (CSCO) announced plans to acquire Inlet technologies, a privately-held provider of Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms. Under the agreement, CSCO will pay approximately $95 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Inlet. According to the company, the acquisition of Inlet will bolster the capabilities of CSCO's Videoscape TV platform, allowing service and content providers to deliver video experiences to any device over any Internet Protocol (IP) network.
Bank of America (BAC) shares are trending lower as Bloomberg reports the bank will get at least $700 million from QBE Insurance Group for BofA's Balboa insurance unit. The move is part of BofA's plan to focus on retail customers, commercial borrowers and investment banking while getting rid of unrelated assets in order to raise capital.
Verizon (VZ) stopped online sales of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 4 after one day, in what the company called the "most successful first day" of online sales in its history, according to a statement. The general market launch of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network will occur on Feb. 10. The company will open its more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless stores at 7 a.m. It will also be available at all Apple store locations, Best Buy and select Wal-Mart stores.
Silverleaf Resorts (SVLF) soared after it says it will be bought by SL Resort Holdings Inc., an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P, for $2.50 in cash per share.
GameStop (GME) is up after the company announced that its Board of Director had authorized $500 million in additional funds for its share and debt repurchase program.
In earnings news:
Shares of health insurer Aetna (AET) are higher after the firm reported Q4 earnings of $0.63, a penny better than the Street view. Revenue was $8.51 billion, vs. the analyst consensus of $8.4 billion on Thomson Reuters. Aetna projects full-year 2011 operating earnings per share of $3.70 to $3.80. The Street is at $3.27 per share.
Yum! Brands (YUM) is fractionally lower after the company reported net income of $0.63 per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.60. Sales grew 6% to $3.56 billion, also topping the Street.
MoneyGram International (MGI) reports Q4 revenue of $303.4 mln, ahead of Street expectations of $295 mln. EPS loss was $0.23, narrower than the analyst consensus of a loss of $0.35 per share on Thomson Reuters.
Tyson Foods (TSN) reports Q1 earnings of $0.78 per share, including a $0.03 per share gain, up from $0.42 per share a year ago. Sales were $7.61 bln, up from $6.63 bln last year. The Street view was a profit of $0.62 per share on sales of $7.15 bln.
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
* Hang Seng up 1.81%
* Nikkei up 1.08%
* FTSE up 0.23%
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) JDSU continues evening gain that followed earnings, guidance
beat.
(+) TSN beats with Q1 results.
(+) PHM revenue tops expectations.
(+) CEG Q4 results top year-ago quarte, guidance mostly above Street view.
(+) AVID easily tops Q4 estimates.
(+) AET beats with Q4 results, guides for 2011 EPS above Street view.
(+) CLX beats with Q2 results.
(+) YRCW beats sales estimates.
(+,-) WY seeing mixed trade after earnings beat.
(+) SVLF sold to Cerberus Capital.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) LVS continues downside reaction to mostly in line to better-than-expected earnings.
(-) FSLR downgraded.
(-) LCC downgraded.
(-) CSTR continues evening drop that followed revenue miss.
(-) HOV prices shares.
(-) MGI beats with Q4 results.
(-) CELL upgraded. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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