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| Weekly Wrap Up |
For the third week in a row, the major indices posted weekly losses. It was a true roller-coaster week, with the markets closing up one day, then down the next, throughout the entire week. The largest losses were seen on Thursday, the last trading day of the week due to the markets being closed on Friday for the Independence Day holiday, with the Dow Jones falling over 200 points. Over the course of the week, the Dow Jones finished down 147 points, the Nasdaq lost 41, and the NYSE dropped 131. Economics data was the key to predicting the movements of the markets, and as you can hypothesize from the losses, most of the reports brought bad news. The consumer confidence report showed an unexpected decline in June, despite having been rising since March, and Thursday's jobs report showed a greater amount of job cuts, and an unemployment rate continuing to climb, to 9.5%. The best economic news came on Wednesday, which showed that home sales have continued to rise, albeit slowly, for the fourth month in a row. Although stocks ended down for the week, Tuesday marked the end of the second quarter, which showed strong advances for all the major indices, including a 12% increase in the Dow Jones index. In corporate news, the auto industry experienced good news, as many companies announced higher than expected sales figures, including Ford (F: Charts, News, Offers) and Honda (HMC: Charts, News, Offers). Conversely, many of the major gas companies saw losses, including Exxon Mobil (XOM: Charts, News, Offers) and Chevron (CVX: Charts, News, Offers), and crude oil futures fell, closing at $66.94 a barrel. More Market News
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| Economic News |
Consumer confidence falls on gloomier jobs view
A reading on U.S. consumer confidence relapsed in June, falling to 49.3 from a slightly downwardly revised 54.8 in May, as worries grew about jobs and the economy, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.
Following a large confidence jump in May, consumers grew more pessimistic in June about their present and future. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected the June result to hit 55.5, continuing recent confidence gains.
"On balance, this was a disappointing report as it has clearly bucked the trend of improving consumer sentiments in the past few months," wrote Millan L. B. Mulraine, economics strategist with TD Securities, in a research note. "Moreover, with the details of the report uniformly weak, we are left with the impression that this was an outright slump in consumer confidence." (Source: MarketWatch) Click here to read the full article
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Pending home sales rise for 4th straight month
Pending home sales rose in May for the fourth straight month, spurred by low prices and a first-time homebuyers tax credit, fresh evidence that the housing sector may be recovering. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales increased by 0.1 percent in May to 90.7. Analysts expected no change, according to Thomson Reuters. While the increase was small, it followed a 7.1 percent jump in the index in April. "The pronounced increase in April and the fact that May sustained this rise does indicate that actual existing home sales are poised to rise in the coming month or two," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for economic forecasting firm MFR Inc., in a note to clients. (Source: MSNBC) Click here to read the full article
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467K jobs cut in June; jobless rate at 9.5 percent
Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Workers also saw weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy. The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground. President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he is "deeply concerned" about unemployment and conceded that too many families are worried about "whether they will be next" to suffer an economic blow. He also expressed disappointment over the weak employment figures, acknowledging that "what we are still seeing is too many jobs lost." (Source: Yahoo! Finance) Click here to read the full article
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| Business News |
AIG shareholders to elect new directors at meeting
American International Group Inc (AIG: Charts, News, Offers), the insurer rescued by a series of federal bailouts, is set to pad out its shrinking board on Tuesday when a new slate of directors stands for election at its annual meeting. The nominees will help rebuild a board decimated in the past year by seven resignations, one retirement and three other directors not standing for re-election. The meeting, to be held on Wall Street, will be the first public opportunity for shareholders to vent frustration since the insurer's financial implosion last year. (Source: Reuters) Click here to read the full article
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Ford, Honda Sales Beat Estimates in Sign Auto Slump Is Easing
Ford Motor Co. (F: Charts, News, Offers), Honda Motor Co. (HMC: Charts, News, Offers) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSAN.Y: Charts, News, Offers) reported June U.S. sales that were better than estimates, as analysts predicted a stabilizing U.S. economy may have led the auto industry to its strongest month this year. General Motors Corp. (GM: Charts, News, Offers), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM: Charts, News, Offers) and Chrysler Group LLC each posted sales that fell more than analysts expected. Ford predicted that the industry annual rate for June was still the highest so far in 2009, while GM said the pace probably was no more than 9.9 million as a new U.S. program to spur trade-ins of older vehicles kept some buyers on the sidelines. (Source: Bloomberg) Click here to read the full article
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J&J buys $1 billion Elan stake, gains Alzheimer's R&D
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: Charts, News, Offers) has agreed to pay $1 billion for an 18.4 percent stake in Irish drugmaker Elan Corp , and will acquire most of the rights to Elan's portfolio of experimental drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease. The transaction, announced on Thursday, will give J&J an interest in bapineuzumab, a closely watched Alzheimer's drug in late-stage development that Elan is developing in collaboration with Wyeth. Wyeth (WYE: Charts, News, Offers) is being acquired by Pfizer Inc (PFE: Charts, News, Offers). Elan's shares rose 21 percent to $8.46 in mid-morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. J&J shares lost nearly 1 percent to $56.52. (Source: MSN Money) Click here to read the full article
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| Technology Focus |
Steve Jobs is back on the job, Apple says
Apple Inc. (AAPL: Charts, News, Offers) on Monday said that Steve Jobs has returned to work after a six-month medical leave of absence that included a liver transplant for the chief executive earlier this year.
Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, acknowledged that Jobs is back at work at headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. "He's currently at work a few days a week and working from home the remaining days," Dowling said. "We are very glad to have him back."
Jobs' return to Apple coincides with the end of his medical leave, which was announced in January and scheduled to wrap up in late June. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook handled the day-to-day running of the company during that time. (Source: MarketWatch) Click here to read the full article
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Cisco Considers Taking on Microsoft's Office Suite
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO: Charts, News, Offers) is considering offering Web-based alternatives to Microsoft's (MSFT: Charts, News, Offers) popular Office software as the networking giant expands on the Internet.
Cisco Senior Vice President Doug Dennerline said on Tuesday his company may develop a service that would allow business users to create documents they could draft and share through its WebEx meeting and collaboration service.
Internet-based alternatives to Microsoft Office cropped up about five years ago, but corporate users have yet to embrace them. If the approach does take off, it could become big business: Microsoft's Office division rang up sales of $60 billion in the software company's most recent fiscal year. (Source: CNBC) Click here to read the full article
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Microsoft and Facebook race to real time
The race among some of the biggest online companies to reveal more of the instant opinions and information flooding across the internet in real time has intensified, with Microsoft (MSFT: Charts, News, Offers) and Facebook each announcing important initiatives in recent days.
The initiatives reflect the broader impact on the internet that is starting to be felt by the soaring popularity of Twitter, the service that lets users broadcast short messages.
Twitter has quickly become the leading public repository of real-time opinions, gossip and information from millions of people, prompting search engines like Microsoft's Bing to try to index it, and rivals like Facebook to try to copy its success. (Source: Financial Times) Click here to read the full article
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| Your Money |
Recession hits men harder
The current recession is hitting workers in just about every industry, but men are taking a much bigger hit than women.
The 2.3 percentage-point gap between men's June unemployment rate of 10.6% and women's 8.3% rate is near the highest it's ever been since records started being kept in 1948. The gap first hit 2 percentage points in March this year and the 2.5 percentage-point gap in May was the highest ever.
The overall unemployment rate rose to 9.5% in June, from 9.4% in May. The economy lost a higher-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June.
"The gap between female and male unemployment has never been as large as it is now," said Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. (Source: MarketWatch) Click here to read the full article
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Top-Paying Jobs for Women
Move over CEO, there's a new job in town.
Women are flocking to the labor force in record numbers. Nearly 60% sought or occupied employment in 2008, the latest year for which statistics are available, representing 46.5% of the total U.S. labor force. More than one-third of these women worked in management, professional and related occupations, accounting for 51% of all workers in this top-paying sector.
Though a pay gap persists -- women's earnings remain stalled at around 80% of men's -- women are finding the jobs that pay them the most, and some may surprise you. (Source: Yahoo Finance) Click here to read the full article
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