Before the Open (Nov 8)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed down across-the-board. China, Japan and South Korea dropped 1%. Europe is currently mostly down. Austria, France, Norway, Czech Republic and Spain are down the most. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market. This of course can change when the employment numbers are released.

The dollar is flat. Oil is up, copper down. Gold is up, silver flat.
Yesterday the market suffered its worst daily loss since the June meltdown. While TWTR had a spectacular first day of trading, the bears were out in full force otherwise. Besides the 27-point drop off the high, the S&P is now down 14.5 for the week. Barring a big rally, it’ll be the first weekly loss of the last five.
Here’s the weekly. There is nothing wrong with the long term technical picture. Sure the S&P can fall another 50 points, but overall there’s no reason to believe the uptrend will not continue and new highs not made.

Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 7.3% (was 7.2% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +204K
private payrolls:
average workweek: unchanged at 34.4
hourly wages: up 2 cents to $24.10
labor participation rate 13.8% from 13.6%
Sept job gain raised to 163K from 148K
Aug job gain raised to 238K from 193K
As long as the Fed is data-dependent, the jobs numbers are a catch-22. Bad numbers imply weakness (bad) but no tapering (good for Wall St.). Good numbers imply the opposite.
The numbers don’t look that bad to me (at least compared to the recent past). And I’m sure the government shutdown had a negative effect.
But it doesn’t matter. The futures quickly moved down, and that’s all that matters.
My stance remains the same. Long term I like the market. Near term it’s muddled and unclear.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
The NY Times reports that the White House is supporting a bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Whole Foods (WFM -11.18%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
DigiTimes reports that Samsung (SSNLF -10.34%) will launch smartphones with 64-bit CPUs starting in 2014.
Peabody Energy (BTU -0.64%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Covidien PLC (COV -0.43%) reported Q4 EPS of 91 cents, better than consensus of 90 cents.
NVIDIA (NVDA -2.35%) rose 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 26 cents, better than consensus of 20 cents.
Disney (DIS -2.68%) reported Q4 EPS of 77 cents, stronger than consensus of 76 cents.
CareFusion (CFN -0.98%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 44 cents, better than consensus of 39 cents.
The Gap (GPS -0.71%) reported October net sales up 6% y/y and October Same-Store-Sales were up 4% and then said it sees Q3 EPS of 70 cents-71 cents, above consensus of 66 cents.
Monster Beverage (MNST -1.25%) fell 2% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 53 cents, below consensus of 57 cents.
Salix (SLXP -2.37%) will acquire Santarus ({=SNTS for $32 per share in cash or $2.6 billion.
Groupon (GRPN -5.09%) rose almost 2% in pre-market trading after it reported Q3 EPS of 2 cents, double consensus of 1 cent, but then said it sees Q4 EPS at 0 to 2 cents, well below consensus of 6 cents.
Roundy’s (RNDY -1.93%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of 7 cents, well below consensus of 13 cents.
Priceline.com (PCLN -3.32%) reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $17.30, well above consensus of $16.15.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Nonfarm Payrolls
8:30 Personal Income and Outlays
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
Notable earnings before today’s open: AINV, COV, CVC, DRH, EBIX, EGO, HALO, HMSY, LGF, NTWK
Notable earnings after today’s close: none
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers