Reuters Insider - Stocks flat as job growth stalls

AFC group

13/01/2014 03:38

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 Source:             Thomson Reuters                                   
                                                                       
 Description:        Summary: Stocks were little changed as investors  
                     discount dismal hiring in December; homebuilders  
                     rally as debt yields tumble; Target security      
                     breach bigger and wider than first revealed.      
 
 
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)

 U.S. stocks fluctuated between positive and negative territory as a 
weaker-than-expected jobs number provided little certainty of what's really 
going on with the economy. The Dow was unable to climb out of a small hole, but 
the S&P 500 and Nasdaq managed to turn slight gains. Blue chips slightly lower 
for the week, while the Nasdaq posted a gain of 1%. U.S. employers hired only 
74,000 workers in December, the smallest gain in three years. New jobs were 
largely focused in two areas- retail and temp, helped by the holidays. 
Government hiring fell by 13,000. Some economists say the setback was likely 
temporary, with unusually cold weather to blame. Steve Blitz is the Chief 
Economist at ITG Investment Research. It's not as bad as it looks, but it's not 
great either. It probably puts us back into sort of a 150-160 type of an average
payroll increase, which is less than we saw in the last few months. And it 
should temper a bit of the enthusiasm that had been building that this economy 
was about to launch into some sort of a breakneck speed. The unemployment rate 
fell to 6.7%, its lowest since October 2008, but the decline mostly reflected 
people leaving the labor force. The payroll report suggests the Federal Reserve 
doesn't have to rush to further slow bond purchases; that sent yields on the 
10-year note lower, which gave homebuilders like Lennar and D.R. Horton a boost,
with investors betting the group will benefit if mortgage rates are subdued. The
holiday season data breach at Target was far bigger than the company first 
announced. The retailer says an investigation shows 70 million people were 
impacted up from the 40 million first revealed. The security mishap took a toll 
on the company's sales, prompting Target to lower its revenue forecast for the 
fourth quarter. Shares of the discount retailer sagged by more than 1%. The 
stock performance for Sears was much worse, down almost 14%. The retailer saw 
steep same-store sales declines during the crucial holiday season at both Sears 
and Kmart. Meanwhile, shares of Alcoa fell 5.4%, a day after posting results 
hurt by a decline in aluminum prices. European stocks climbed to a new 5.5-year 
high on a string of strong corporate updates, but the rally was restrained by 
that weak U.S. jobs report