Before the Open (Oct 22)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China, Hong Kong and Indonesia moved down. Australia, New Zealand and Singapore moved up. Europe currently leans to the upside. Italy and Switzerland are up. Austria and Czech Republic are down. Futures here in the States are flat. This of course could change after the latest employment numbers are released.

The dollar is up slightly. Oil is down, copper up. Gold and silver are up.
Today we get the employment numbers that were supposed to be released on Oct 4. If the numbers are good, Wall St. will fear tapering will happen sooner rather than later, but the numbers will be spun. Wall St. will insist on waiting until the effects of the government shutdown are known. If the numbers are bad, tapering gets put on the back burner. For better or worse, Wall St. would applaud this. Either way I don’t see bad numbers being viewed as bad numbers. This doesn’t mean we won’t get a “sell the news scenario,” but it does mean the numbers should not disrupt the overall trend.
Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 7.2% (was 7.3% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +148K
private payrolls:
average workweek: unchanged at 34.5
hourly wages: up 3 cents to $24.09
labor participation rate unchanged at 63.2%
July cut from 104K to 89K.
August gain raised from 165K to 193K.
On the news S&P futures jumped a couple points and then gave them back. As of right now, they’re up about 4 points.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
EMC Corp. (EMC +0.64%) reported Q3 EPS of 40 cents, below consensus of 45 cents.
Travelers Cos. (TRV +0.21%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.35, well ahead of consensus of $2.09.
Lockheed Martin (LMT -2.79%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.57, stronger than consensus of $2.27.
Harley-Davidson (HOG -0.27%) reported Q3 EPS of 73 cents, better than consensus of 72 cents.
Whirlpool (WHR -1.84%) reported Q3 EPS of $2.72, stronger than consensus of $2.63.
Delta Air Lines (DAL -1.28%) reported Q3 EPS of $1.41, better than consensus of $1.35.
Transocean (RIG +1.48%) rose over 4% in pre-market trading after it was announced that it will replace Dell (DELL +0.14%) in the S&P 500 as of the 10/28 close.
TJX (TJX -0.33%) raised its Q3 adjusted EPS view to 73 cents-74 cents from 69 cents-72 cents, better than consensus of 72 cents.
Texas Instruments (TXN +0.69%) fell over 3% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 56 cents, higher than consensus of 53 cents, but lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to 42 cents to 50 cents, below consensus of 51 cents.
Rent-A-Center (RCII +0.33%) reported Q3 EPS of 51 cents, well below consensus of 65 cents, and lowered guidance on fiscal 2013 EPS view to $2.80-$2.85, below consensus of $3.11.
Kohl’s (KSS -0.54%) reported that its stores will open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day Nov 28 and remain open for 28 straight hours through midnight Friday Nov 29 nationwide.
W. R. Berkley (WRB -0.20%) reported Q3 operating EPS of 77 cents, higher than consensus of 74 cents.
Discover (DFS -0.39%) fell 4% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of $1.20, below consensus of $1.21.
VMware (VMW +1.50%) surged 13% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 84 cents, better than consensus of 82 cents.
Netflix (NFLX +6.44%) jumped 11% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 52 cents, better than consensus of 49 cents, and raised guidance on Q4 EPS to 47 cents to 73 cents, above consensus of 46 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
7:45 ICSC Retail Store Sales
8:30 Nonfarm Payrolls
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
10:00 Richmond Fed Mfg.
10:00 Construction Spending
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
Notable earnings before today’s open: AKS, ARMH, CIT, CNC, COH, CSL, DAL, DD, EMC, ENTG, FCX, FMER, FRX, GNTX, HOG, IDXX, IRWD, ITW, KMB, LMT, LRY, LXK, MHFI, NUS, NVS, PCH, PII, PNR, R, RAI, RF, RSH,SIAL, SNV, STT, TRV, UTX, WAT, WHR, WIT
Notable earnings after today’s close: ABAX, ACE, AEC, ALTR, AMGN, APOL, BCR, BRCM, CBST, CLS, CNI, CREE, DTLK, FBC, FTI, FULT, GLF, HA, IRBT, JNPR, MTSN, NBR, PACB, PNRA, RFMD, RHI, STM, TSS, UIS, USNA, VASC, VOCS, WCN, XOOM, ZIXI
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers