Wall Street Awaits Payroll Data, Stock Lack Direction

Nichole Harper
03 Dec, 2014
New York City

Market indexes in New York traded higher and crude oil bounced around $67 a barrel. Walgreen fiscal first-quarter sales increased 6.8%. Abercrombie & Fitch comparable sales in third-quarter plunged 14%.

[R]1:25 PM New York – Market indexes in New York traded higher and crude oil bounced around $67 a barrel. Walgreen fiscal first-quarter sales increased 6.8%. Abercrombie & Fitch comparable sales in third-quarter plunged 14%.[/R]

Market indexes traded higher in New York and crude oil bounced around $67 a barrel and gold jumped 0.8%.

On Wall Street trading, Tollbooth Index rose 0.3% or 30.12 to 10,008.76.

S&P 500 index added 3.31 or 0.2% to 2,069.10 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 8.33 or 0.2% to 4,764.17.

U.S. Movers

Abercrombie & Fitch Co ((ANF)), the specialty retailer reported total sales in the third-quarter ending on November 2 plunged 12% to $911.4 million from a year ago.

Comparable store sales in the quarter declined 14% but direct-to-consumer sales jumped 8%.

Net in the quarter swung to profit $18.2 million or 25 cents a diluted share compared to a loss of $15.6 million or 20 cents from a same quarter last year.

Walgreen Company ((WAG)), the retail drugstore chain reported November sales climbed 4.9% to $6.36 billion from a year ago month.

Total front-end sales increased 1.3% and comparable store front-end sales rose 0.8%. Customer traffic in comparable stores dropped 3.3% while basket size jumped 4.1%. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 2.6%.

Total sales for the first-quarter ending in November soared 6.8% to $19.59 billion and comparable store sales in the quarter climbed 5.8%, front-end comparable store sales rose 1.5%. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores climbed 4.2% and comparable pharmacy sales surged 8.3%.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 0.2% or 14.44 to 6,727.66 and in Frankfurt the DAX index gained 0.4% or 38.14 to 9,972.22.

In Paris, CAC 40 index rose 0.2% or 8.22 to 4,396.52.

In the European corporate news, Deutsche Bank and retail property group ECE agreed to acquire PalaisQuartier for about €800 million.

Just Eat raised around £139 million. Sage Group profit surged 295% to £188 million. Telenor and TeliaSonera agreed to merge Danish mobile businesses.

The Sage Group Plc, the U.K.-based enterprise software developer reported revenue in the year ending in September declined 5% to £1.31 billion from £1.38 billion a year ago period.

Net profit in the year surged 295.1% from a year ago to £187.7 million compared to £47.5 million and diluted earnings per share jumped to 17.04 pence from 3.96 pence.

Telenor ASA, the Norway-based telecom company and Sweden-based TeliaSonera AB agreed to merge Denmark-based mobile businesses to new joint venture on an equal valuation. The company expects to generate revenue of about 9.1 billion kronor or $1.5 billion.

The transaction expected to close in next year.

Asian Markets

Stocks in Tokyo advanced for the fourth day in a row and the Topix index closed at a high not seen since 2008. Toyota and Honda gained after the U.S. sales in November were ahead of expectations. Nissan sales lagged.

Stocks in Tokyo extended gains for the fourth day in a row and the wider Topix index closed at a new high not seen since 2008.

Auto makers were in focus after the U.S. November auto sales increased 4.6%, according to the data released by the industry research organization Autodata Corp based in New Jersey.

U.S. sales of Toyota increased 3% and Honda Motor sales jumped 4.6%. Nissan sales decreased 3.1%.

Toyota stock advanced 0.91% to 7,592 yen, the best level since 2007 and Honda gained 0.7% to 3,652 yen. Nissan stock eased 0.6% to 1,102 yen.

The service index measured by the PMI index for November climbed to 50.6 from 48.7 a month earlier and composite PMI in November jumped to 51.2 compared to 49.5 in October, a survey from Markit Economics showed.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 57.21 or 0.3% to 17,720.43 and the broader Topix index added 1.90 to 1,429.75.

The yen rose 0.2% to 119.43 against one dollar.

In Mumbai trading, the Sensex Index slid 1.30 to close at 28,442.71. The CNX Nifty rose 12.95 or 0.2% to 8,537.65.

JSW Energy Limited, the largest electric utility provider agreed to acquire two power projects for about Rs 9,700 crore from JP Power.

Tata Motors Limited, the truck and motor vehicle maker set up new automobile manufacturing unit in Brazil with estimated investment of $290 million.