Weak U.S. Job Report, Home Builders Fall

123jump.com Staff
09 Jan, 2009
New York City

U.S. stocks edged lower after unemployment rate crossed 7% and 524,000 jobs were lost in December. For the year 2.6 million people lost jobs. Construction, manufacturing and retail sectors lost bulk of the jobs in the year. KB Home plunged and dragged other home builder after a large loss.

[R]12:00PM New York – U.S. stocks edged lower on weak job report and weak earnings from a home builder.[/R]

U.S. stocks fell after the December unemployment rate jumped to 7.2%, more than expected and 524,000 people lost jobs in the month. Total number of unemployed rose to 2.6 million. Nearly 1.93 million people lost jobs in the last four months. Construction, retail and manufacturing sector lost bulk of the jobs.

Manufacturing sector lost 149,000 jobs in the month and 791,000 jobs in the year 2008. Construction lost 101,000 in December and 632,000 in the year. Retail sector lost 522,300 jobs.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 65 rose, 432 declined and 3 were unchanged.

Lennar Corp led decliners in the index with a loss of 17.6% followed by losses in Jones Apparel of 13.4%, in Coach Inc of 13%, in CVS Caremark Corp of 12.6% and RR Donnelley of 9.3%.

Apollo Group ed gainers in the index with a rise of 13% followed by increase in Stryker Corp of 5.8%, in SLM Corp of 5.3%, in Becton Dickinson of 4% and in Reynolds America of 3.8%.

Earning News

Home builders declined after a larger than expected loss at KB Home.

KB Home, the fifth largest homebuilder reported fourth quarter revenues fell 56% to $919 million from $2.07 billion a year ago. Net loss in the quarter was $307.3 million or $3.96 per diluted share compared to net loss of $772.7 million or $9.99 per share a year ago.

Total revenues for the fiscal year 2008 fell 53% to $3.03 billion from $6.42 billion a year ago. Net income for the year rose 5% to $976.1 million or $12.59 per diluted share compared to net income of $929.4 million or $12.04 per share a year ago.

KB Home ((KBH)) in the last one year traded as high as $28.99 in February 2008 and as low as $6.90 in November 2008. Based on the yesterday''s closing price of $14.57 the company has market cap of $1.31 billion.

Crude oil declined 3% or $1.27 to $40.43 and natural gas fell 11 cents to $5.48 per mBtu. Gold rose $12 to $866.50.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 39.62 or 0.45% to 8,836.80, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 38.47 or 0.27% closed to 14,377.44 CSI 300 index in China higher 30.37 or 1.61% closed to 1,918.36. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 41.40 or 1.12% to close 3,735.70. The KL Composite index in Malaysia higher 8.55 or 0.94% closed to 919.07.

The Kospi Index in South Korea decreased 24.74 or 2.05% to close at 1,180.96. SET index in Thailand closed lower 5.97 or 1.28% to 459.06 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 14.01 or 1.00% closed to 1,416.67. The Sensex index in India decreased 180.41 or 1.88% closed to 9,406.47.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index traded lower 25.01 or 0.56% to 4,480.36, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 7.81 or 0.23% to 3,316.52 and in Frankfurt DAX index traded lower 7.34 or 0.15% to 4,872.57. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 60.42 or 1.05% to 5,690.65.