Daily Rundown, July 16
Stocks are set to open steady on mostly upbeat economic and earnings news Thursday morning. Forty-five minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average might add 20 or 30 points at the open.
Weekly jobless claims fell by 33,000 to 522,000 in the week ended July 11. Stock index futures gained on the news, as economists were looking for a decline to only 555,300.
Earnings news is helping as well. The day after an upbeat profit report from Intel (INTC) sparked big gains in the major averages Wednesday, Dow component JP Morgan (JPM) reported quarterly earnings of 28 cents on $2.7 billion in revenues. Results easily topped Street estimates of 4 cents per share on $25.8 billion.
Biogen Idec (BIIB) reported 75 cents per share for the quarter, which beat by 7 cents.Schwab (SCHW) is also due to report earnings this morning. IBM and Google (GOOG) release results after the close.
The Philadelphia Fed Survey is due out at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. Economists expect the gauge of regional manufacturing activity to slip to -4.8 in July, down from -2.2 in June.
Housing starts and building permits, due out tomorrow at 8:30, are the last remaining economic stats for the week.
In other markets, bonds are steady ahead of the data and despite the better-than-expected claims numbers. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is up 4/32nd and yields 3.565 percent.
The dollar fell .49 to 93.74 on the yen. The euro is up .0035 to 1.4135 on the greenback.
Crude oil lost 82 cents to $60.72 a barrel and gold slipped $1 to $938.40.
Category: Market Update
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About the Author (Author Profile)
Frederic Ruffy is a well-known trader, writer, and strategist who has spent years educating investors and creating intelligent, insightful, unbiased market observations that are frequently cited by the Wall Street Journal and other financial publications. As senior analyst, Fred provides frequent and regular notes and daily updates for activity of interest.
