Before the Open (Jan 8)

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers day.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with a lean to the upside. China rallied 2%; Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea also did well. Europe is currently mixed. Austria is down 2%, and Belgium, Greece and Poland are down more than 1%. The Czech Republic, Finland and Hungary are doing well. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel are very weak. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
2016 is off to one of the worst starts in history. The S&P is down 100 points…all the indexes are down 5.0 – 6.4%. All those stats about the first day of the year and first week of the year being good predictors of the entire year obviously lean heavily to the downside.
Employment numbers get released today. Unlike the last year, where good numbers were rooted against because they increased the odds the Fed would raise rates, Wall St. now wants good numbers to provide evidence the economy is doing well.
Here are the employment numbers…
unemployment rate: 5.0% (was 5.0% last month)
nonfarm payrolls: +292K
private payrolls:
average workweek: flat at 34.5 hours
hourly wages: down $0.01 to $25.24
labor participation rate: x% (was 62.5% last month)
October job gain upped from 298K to 307k
November jog gain upped from 211K to 252K
On the news, S&P futures jumped from being up 17 to being up 30.
(I sense my internet is about to go down, so I’m posting this and will update it)
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Foot Locker (FL -1.21%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Bank of America.
Dupont (DD -2.97%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from Market Perform’ at Bernstein who also raised their price target on the stock to $81 from $71.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM +1.47%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Buckingham Research Group.
Five Below (FIVE -0.18%) gained over 2% in after-hours trading after it raised guidance on Q4 sales to $323 million-$326 million from a December outlook of $318 million-$323 million, above estimates of $320 million.
Helen of Troy (HELE -1.34%) climbed over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $2.07, higher than consensus of $1.93.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX -9.08%) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ at Macquarie.
Synnex (SNX -2.15%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.80, stronger than consensus of $1.75, but then lowered guidance on Q1 adjusted EPS to $1.34-$1.39, below consensus of $1.54.
The Gap (GPS +5.73%) slipped over 6% in after-hours trading after it reported December comparable same-store-sales fell -5.0% y/y, a bigger decline than expectations of -3.9% y/y.
Container Store Group (TCS -5.15%) slumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported an unexpected Q3 adjusted EPS loss of -4 cents, weaker than consensus of a 5 cent profit, and then lowered guidance on Q4 EPS to 19 cents-22 cents, well below consensus of 29 cents.
Alcoa (AA -3.95%) said it will close an aluminum smelter in Evansville, IN and curtail capacity at its Point Comfort, TX refinery to increase the competitiveness of its upstream business.
Suppliers of Apple products fell in after-hours trading with Skyworks Solutions (SWKS -2.88%) and Invensense (INVN -0.32%) down 3%, Avago Technologies (AVGO -3.18%) down 5%, and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI -5.41%) and Broadcom (BRCM -1.57%) both down 2% after Cirrus Logic and Qorvo blamed weakness in mobile products for their slowdown in revenue growth.
Cirrus Logic (CRUS unch) tumbled over 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 preliminary revenue of $347 million, below consensus of $386 million.
Qorvo (QRVO +2.29%) lowered guidance on Q3 revenue to $629 million from a prior estimate of $720 million-$730 million, well below consensus of $723.8 million.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:30 Non-farm payrolls
10:00 Wholesale Trade
11:30 Fed’s Williams: Economic Outlook
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
1:00 PM Fed’s Lacker: Economic Outlook
3:00 PM Consumer Credit
Today’s Earnings here
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers