STOCKS FALL, DOW LOSES 110: Here’s What You Need To Know

MYLES UDLAND

 SEP. 24, 2014

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

A trader works inside a post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Stocks fell for the third straight day on Tuesday, with the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 100 points and also logging the largest percentage loss. 

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,061.33, -111, (-0.6%)
• S&P 500:1,986.17, -8.3, (-0.4%)
• Nasdaq: 4,516.49, -11.2, (-0.2%)

And now, the top stories on Tuesday:

1. The FHFA’s July home price index showed prices rose 0.1%, less than the 0.5% expected by economists and the 0.4% that prices rose last month. Following the report, Michael Gapen at Barclays said, “The index now stands up 4.4% y/y, down from 5.1% in June and 7.8% through end-2013. The slowdown in the rate of home price appreciation in the FHFA House Price Index in 2014 has mirrored that in other national home price indices and is broadly in line with our outlook for smaller gains in home prices this year.” 

2. Markit’s flash manufacturing PMI report for September came in at 57.9, unchanged from August and basically in-line with the 58.0 that was expected by economists. Following the report, Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said, “The flash PMI signaled another month of impressive growth of the US manufacturing economy. The third quarter as a whole has seen the strongest expansion since the sector began to recover from the financial crisis.” Jesse Hurwitz at Barclays also said this report is in-line with continued a expansion in manufacturing activity during the third quarter. 

3. The Richmond Federal Reserve’s latest manufacturing index jumped to 14 in September from 12 in August. The report showed that shipments and volume of new orders picked up this month, and said, “Manufacturers remained optimistic about future business conditions. Survey participants expected faster growth in shipments and in the volume of new orders in the six months ahead. Producers looked for increased capacity utilization and anticipated rising backlogs. Expectations were for longer vendor lead times.”

4. After crashing 10% into the close on Monday, shares of multi-level marketer regained nearly all of their losses on Tuesday. Despite the rebound in shares of Herbalife on Tuesday, Business Insider’s Julia LaRoche reported that Bill Stiritz, chairman and CEO of Post Holdings, has suffered some ugly paper losses on his nearly 7.5 million share stake in Herbalife. Stiritz’s stake, which is made through his personal investing vehicle, is equal to about 8% of Herbalife and has fallen $145 million this year. 

5. On Monday, the Russell 2000 index completed a “Death Cross,” or a technical indicator that occurs when a security or index’s 50-day moving average falls below its 200-day moving average. In his morning note on Tuesday, however, UBS’ Art Cashin said, “Doing this for 50 years tells me the death cross is more important to the media than to the markets.”

6. The CEO of Ultrasonic, the Chinese shoe company that last week said their CEO and COO had disappeared and taken the company’s money with them, kind of reappeared over the weekend. In a press release on Monday, Ultrasonic that, according to its CFO Clifford Chan, CEO Qingyong Wu called Chan over the weekend and said the money would be returned and that he would return to the company. The only problem: Ultrasonic’s board has been unable to independently contact Wu. 

7. The price of Bitcoin spiked higher on Tuesday following news that Bitcoin startup BitPay has announced a partnership with payments company PayPal. The price of Bitcoin spiked 12% on Tuesday to about $430.  

8. Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba fell again, dropping more than 3% on Tuesday, marking the second-straight full trading day of losses for the stock, which made its debut last Friday.

STOCKS FALL, ALIBABA TUMBLES, YAHOO TANKS: Here’s What You Need To Know

SAM R

 SEP. 23, 2014

REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Markets are starting the week in the red.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,172.7, -106.9, (-0.6%)
• S&P 500:1,994.3, -16.0, (-0.8%)
• Nasdaq:4,527.6, -52.1, (-1.1%)

And now, the top stories on Friday:

1. For traders, September 22 is one of those days with a notorious history. UBS’s Art Cashin notes that September 22 marked various market highs in 1873, 1929, 1980, and even as recent as 2008. “If that’s not enough, several of the astrological types claim their charts show [this] week is fertile ground for surprises – geo-political and otherwise,” Cashin said. “Crazy?  Maybe, but forewarned is forearmed.”

2. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba exploded higher on Friday on its IPO. Today, the $230 billion company fell 4.4%. The biggest loser in the S&P 500 today was Yahoo, which is a big investor of Alibaba. Yahoo shares fell 5.5% today.

3. The pace of existing home sales unexpectedly fell 1.8% to an annualized rate of 5.05 million. Economists estimated sales would climb to a 5.20 million pace. “There was a marked decline in all-cash sales from investors,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. “On the positive side, first-time buyers have a better chance of purchasing a home now that bidding wars are receding and supply constraints have significantly eased in many parts of the country.”

4. The big news of the day arguable occured in London where UK-based grocery chain Tesco revealed a $408 million error in its first half profits. Tesco is the second biggest retailer in the world. The stock fell 11.6% today.

STOCKS FALL AFTER BAD NEWS FROM EUROPE: Here’s What You Need To Know

MYLES UDLAND 
 JUL. 11, 2014

REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

People surround a clergyman reading a prayer at a temporary tent camp set up for Ukrainian refugees in the town of Novoshakhtinsk in Rostov region near the Ukrainian-Russian border, southern Russia, July 9, 2014.

Stocks fell, but recovered some losses after opening deep in the red on uncertainty out of Europe.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 16,917.92, 67.8, (-0.4%)
• S&P 500:1,964.46, -8.4, (-0.4%)
• Nasdaq:4,395.89, -23.2, (-0.5%)

And now, the top stories of the day:

1) This morning, weekly initial jobless claims fell to 304,000 from 315,000 a week ago. The report was also better than the 315,000 initial claims that was expected by economists. Following the report, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macro said, “In one line: Looks great, but expect volatility over the next four weeks… Sooner or later — presumably next week — the auto shutdowns will hit the claims data, so we have to expect substantial neat-term volatility, though today’s report likely is reasonable reflection of the favorable underlying trend.”

2) The top stock story of the day was CYNK Technology, a $5 billion social networking company that has no revenue, no assets, and just one employee. Shares of CYNK Technology, which trade over the counter, were up better than 25,000% since June 17, and after trading up as much as 30% today, closed down 13%. The company operates a social networking site, IntroBiz.com, which connects members to celebrities, among other people, for free. Though seeing as the company has no revenue, it is unclear what the status of the business is.

3) This morning, stocks in Europe fell, bringing U.S. stock futures down with them, after the parent company of the second-largest bank in Portugal, Banco Espirito Santo, missed debt payments to “a few clients.” Following the news, Bloomberg economists David Powell and Maxime Sbaihi said, “Problems in Portugal’s banking sector appear to have worried investors over the solvency of the country.” Powell and Sbaihi also noted that the public finances of Portugal are among the most fragile in the eurozone. Additionally, both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal reported that Spanish bank Banco Popular Espanol postponed a planned debt sale citing, “adverse market conditions.”

4) Also in Europe, industrial production in France fell 3.7% year-over-year, a steeper decline than the 1% drop that was expected by economists. Following the report, Pantheon Macro’s Claus Vistesen said, “We are running out of downbeat adjectives to describe the data in France, with the headline numbers from the French industrial production report truly appalling.” Inflation data in France also disappointed, showing prices increased just 0.5% in June, less than the 0.7% increase in May and the 0.7% increase expected by economists.

5) Italy reported industrial production that fell 1.2% month-over-month in May, putting its economic recovery in doubt. Along with discouraging news out of the Spanish and Portuguese financial sectors, Italy’s poor results put renewed focus on the European periphery, which has seen a tepid recovery since the Eurozone crisis. 

5) In U.S. corporate news, CNBC reported that Marcus Lemonis, the host of CNBC’s “The Profit,” is nearing a deal, along with a group of investors, to buy Crumbs Bake Shop. Shares of Crumbs, which shut its doors Monday, went absolutely bonkers following the news, gaining more than 1,100%. 

6) Lumber Liquidators stock got crushed, falling 21% after the flooring company last night said customer traffic was weaker than expected. Lumber Liquidators became the latest in a series of U.S. corporations to report disappointing results, joining The Container Store and Family Dollar. 

STOCKS FALL, NASDAQ TUMBLES: Here’s What You Need To Know

MYLES UDLAND MARKETS  JUL. 9, 2014, 4:00 AM

REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Stocks fell for the second straight session, with the Nasdaq leading the way lower, falling more than 1.3%. The situation in Israelalso remains highly unstable, as geopolitical events are once again on the mind of investors. 

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 16,909.85, -114.4, (-0.7%)
• S&P 500: 1,964.67, -12.9, (-0.7%)
• Nasdaq: 4,394.12, -57.4, (-1.3%)

And now, the top stories of the day:

1) The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed that U.S. job openings surged to 4.635 million in May. The report, which is one of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s favorite economic reports, was expected to show job opening fell to 4.35 million compared to 4.455 million in April. The report also showed that job quits, seen as a sign of confidence as you’d expect those who quit their job to believe they can get other work, increased to 2.527 million from 2.467 million. Following the report, Chris Rupkey, Chief Financial Economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said, “4.635 million job openings out there in May: go get yours today. But you know what, job openings are going straight up, the official press release downplaying the data saying there were 4.6 million job openings on the last business day of May, little changed from 4.5 million in April… Little changed, are you kidding? The trend is straight up… Net net, economists got a jolt in the arm this morning for those looking for better times ahead. The number of job openings, especially in 2014, is soaring. Things could literally not be much better.”

2) Following the JOLTS report, Cooper Howes at Barclays noted that the ratio of unemployed job seekers per job fell to 2.11, its lowest level since 2008. Howes said, “This ratio has declined steadily in recent years and currently stands below the average of 2.18 seen from 2002 to 2006 even though the unemployment rate averages 5.4% during that time. In our view, this suggests that there is little slack remaining in labor markets and that wage growth will pick up more quickly than it did at similar levels of the unemployment rate in past cycles.” 

3) Another piece of economic data was also released today, the NFIB Small Business report, which showed the Small Business Optimism Index fell 1.6 points in June to 95.0. In its report, the NFIB said, “The Index did manage to stay above 95, which seemed to be a ceiling on the Index since the recovery started. The good news is that the job components improved again, reaching levels seen only in strong private sector economic times. The bad news is that capital outlays and planned spending faded along with expectations for improving business conditions.”

4) Two Federal Reserve Presidents spoke today and diverged on their views of recent inflation data. Narayana Kocherlakota, President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said in remarks before the Minnesota Business Partnership said that the recent jumps in inflation are “purely transitory.” Kocherlakota added that, “What you should take away, though, is that I currently see the probability of inflation’s averaging more than 2 percent over the next four years as being considerably lower than the probability of inflation’s averaging less than 2 percent over the next four years.”

5) Jeffrey Lacker, President of the Richmond Federal Reserve said in remarks made in Charlotte, North Carolina that inflation, “has bottomed out.” Lacker said, “While the inflation numbers will often run hot or cold for several months at a time, the latest numbers suggest that inflation has bottomed out and is moving toward the Committee’s target. I expect that firming trend to continue this year.” Unlike Kocherlakota, however, Lacker is not currently a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which decides the path of monetary policy in the U.S. The minutes from the latest FOMC minutes are expected to be released tomorrow afternoon. 

6) In the markets it was an ugly day for stocks, especially some of the internet-related so-called “momentum” stocks that took a beating in March and April. Shares of companies including Zulily, Splunk, FireEye, Yelp, and Twitter all fell more than 7% as the Nasdaq, which houses many tech-related issues, fell more than 1.4%. The Russell 2000 Index, which houses many of the smaller, more volatile stocks in the market, fell 1.3%. 

7) In corporate news, aluminum giant Alcoa is expected to report second quarter earnings after the market close, marking the unofficial start of corporate earnings season. Analysts were looking for earnings per share of $0.12 on revenue of $5.66 billion. Ahead of corporate earnings, keep in mind these 50 stocks, courtesy of Bespoke Investment Group, which make the biggest single-day moves following their earnings reports.