U.S. Jobless Rate Fell, World Markets in Holding Pattern

Nichole Harper
02 Jul, 2015
New York City

U.S. payrolls expanded 223,000 in May and jobless rate fell to 5.3%. New orders for manufactured goods in May eased 1%. In the euro area wholesale inflation was stable. Monetary base in Japan continued to rise at a fast pace and investors worried about volatile markets in Shanghai.

[R]3:45 PM – U.S. payrolls expanded 223,000 in May and jobless rate fell to 5.3%. New orders for manufactured goods in May eased 1%. In the euro area wholesale inflation was stable. Monetary base in Japan continued to rise at a fast pace and investors worried about volatile markets in Shanghai.[/R]

Market indexes on Wall Street were in a holding pattern and in Europe indexes struggled to advance.

Seasonally adjusted U.S. weekly jobless claims rose 10,000 to 281,000 from the previous week’s unrevised claims of 271,000 the Department of Labor reported today.

U.S. non-farm payroll employment in June rose 223,000 and unemployment rate fell to 5.3% from 5.5% in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

New orders for manufactured goods in May dropped $4.5 billion or 1% to $470.5 billion, followed by 0.7% decrease in April, the Department of Commerce said.

On Wall Street, Tollbooth Strategy Index fell 0.4% or 42.01 to 10,646.56.

S&P 500 index slid 0.2% or 4.99 to 2,072.46 and the Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 0.4% or 20.12 to 4,992.86.

Crude oil in New York gained 50 cents to $57.46 a barrel and gold slipped $5.50 to $1,163.80 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

BP Plc] jumped 4.8% or $1.91 to $41.18 after the oil and gas company settled claims with the U.S. government and five other states related to Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and decided to pay $18.7 billion.

The company has already spent more than $40 billion for the oil spill cleanup and compensation for damages.

Centene Corporation ((CNC)) declined 6.5% or $5.19 to $75.63 after the healthcare company agreed to acquire Health Net, Inc. in a cash and stock deal for about $6.8 billion, including debt of $500 million.

The deal price represents a premium of 20.7% over the closing stock price of Health Net at $65.06 of July 1.

The deal is expected to close in early 2016.

Paypal, Inc, the electronic payment services provider agreed to acquire international payment services provider Xoom Corporation for $890 million in cash.

Shares of Xoom surged 22% to $25.24.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth-quarter.

European Markets

In the euro area industrial producer price index in May was stable but rose 0.1% in the EU28 region.

In April, prices decreased 0.1% in the euro area and remained stable in the wider region of EU28, the Statistical Office of the European Communities said.

In London trading, FTSE 100 index increased 0.4% or 27.64 to 6,636.24 and in Frankfurt the DAX index fell 0.7% or 75.27 to 11,105.23.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slipped 0.7% or 35.04 to 4,848.84.

Amadeus IT Holding SA slid 0.3% to €36.15 after the Spain-based travel information services agreed to acquire Navitaire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture with main offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Salt Lake City, Utah for $830 million.

Asian Markets

The monetary base in June surged 34.2% to 325.05 trillion yen compared to 35.6% increase in May from a year ago more, the Bank of Japan said today.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 193.18 or 0.9% to 20,522.50 and the broader Topix index rose 11.83 to 1,648.24.

The yen closed at 123.41 against a dollar.

Market indexes in Mumbai rebounded and overlooked the brewing Greek crisis in the euro zone.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved a ₹50,000 crore or $8 billion over five year period for a new irrigation scheme.

Rupee strengthened 9 paisa to 63.51 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index decreased 75.07 or 0.3% to close at 27,945.80. The CNX Nifty fell 8.15 to 8,444.90.

Bajaj Auto Limited increased 1.7% to ₹2,565.80 after the second largest two-wheeler maker said total sales in June climbed 8% to 331,317 units and motorcycle sales surged 10% to 287,582 compared with a year ago month.

Hero MotoCorp Limited increased 0.6% to ₹2532.85 after the largest motorcycle maker said June total sales edged up 0.2% to 542,362 vehicles compared to 541,594 vehicles in the same period last year.

Tata Motors Limited decreased 1.8% to ₹436.60 after the truck and motor vehicle maker said June total commercial and passenger vehicles sales including exports gained 6% to 40,870 units compared to 38,544 vehicles in the same period a year ago.