If the NYSE held a stock-trading session and nobody came, it would look a lot like what you saw today. US stocks sleepwalked through a slight August session, with the winds buffeting the global economy, making so people so nervous, leaving only a quiet murmur on Wall Street.
DJIA eases 1 to 10302, S&P 500 inches ahead just 0.12 to 1079, Nasdaq Comp adds 8 (0.4%) to 2182, with tech shares bolstered by Dell’s all-cash acquisition of 3PAR. NYSE volume is anemic, just 3.1B shares traded. It was, in fact, the lightest day this year.
But while stocks were somnolent, the action was in the Treasury market: the 10-year yield slid as low as 2.579%, lowest since March 2009. A 2.5-anything number on the 10-year yield should be getting people’s attention. The bond market is talking.
Today’s report from the New York Fed on manufacturing was taken pretty well by the Street. The manufacturing index in August rose slightly from July, but the numbers are still well below their spring levels, and pointing to a significant slowdown in activity. But at least we’re not Japan. Japan’s 2Q GDP positively cratered, with the upshot being that for now at least, China is the world’s second-largest economy.
Those are just more signs that the global recovery thing is flagging.
Elsewhere, Lowe’s reports 10% profit growth, kicking off a big week for retail earnings. Still, the company’s 2H outlook was guarded, and company expects weakness until jobs, housing recover.
Banks are leading the market down, after JPMorgan’s earnings report looked great on the bottom line, but not quite so hot above there. Also, today’s data offer more dismal markers on the recovery.
Before you get to the video, ponder this from Capital Economics’ Paul Ashworth: “Today’s data releases suggest that the industrial recovery is rapidly losing momentum, making deflation an even bigger threat.”
So, let’s get this straight. The winter storms kept people from getting to their local unemployment offices, but didn’t stop them from going to the malls, but did keep them from getting to their factory jobs. Got that?
Reports out today on February’s industrial production and capacity utilization, as well as the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing survey, were held in check by the winter storms, so we’re told. Industrial production inched ahead 0.1%, and is up 1.7% from a year ago. And while capacity utilization crept up also, to 72.7% from a revised 72.5%, it still remains well below the long-term average of 80.6% — snow or no snow.
Meanwhile, the Empire State survey slipped a bit in March, but still showed growth, and Capital Economics thinks the report was better than the headline number suggests, given that new orders and shipments hit six-month highs, and employment hit its highest level since the recession started. And given the timing of the survey, weather likely didn’t play a part. “At current levels, the Empire State index is broadly consistent with the ISM index holding steady at around 54.8 in March,” the firm says.
J.P. Morgan reported some strong earnings today. But what this bloggers eye were some of the sub-numbers in the earnings report. The bank booked $1.8 billion in investment banking fees. But don’t be fooled – that wasn’t from big M&A advising. But $429 million was in advisory fees. Instead, that $1.3 billion + remaining fees […]
David Oreck, founder of a well-known maker of vacuums and air purifiers, says he’s upset his namesake company is in bankruptcy. He says Nashville, Tenn.-based Oreck Corp. was a perfectly profitable company when he sold his stake in it to a private equity firm in 2004. He blames the firm, New York-based American Securities Capital […]
