Jobless Claims Remain High - Analyst Blog
June 30 2011 - 5:17AM
Zacks
The positive momentum in the stock market over the last few days
reflected growing expectations of a positive outcome for the Greek
story. Wednesday's successful parliamentary vote, to be followed by
another vote today, paves the way for the beleaguered nation to get
the funding lifeline from the EU/IMF combine.
Hardly anyone expects this to be the end of Greece's troubles. But
it nevertheless removes the threat of an imminent default and the
associated fear of global financial contagion. Stocks will likely
reflect the lingering positivity of a diminishing Greek threat on
this last day of the quarter.
With the Greek story finally moving to the sidelines, the market's
focus will shift back to the unsettled domestic economic scene.
Growth has remained sub-par in the first half of the year and
visibility on the back half of the year remains poor at this stage.
This morning's weak Jobless Claims report is another indicator that
the labor market still remains quite weak. The Chicago PMI report
later today will give us a preview of the all-important June ISM
report coming out tomorrow.
Weekly Jobless Claims dropped by 1,000 last week to 428 thousand,
maintaining the negative trend of recent weeks. The four-week
average, which strips out the inherent volatility in this series,
remained almost unchanged at 426.7 thousand (it actually rose by
500). This is the 12th week running that the jobless claims number
has remained above the 400 thousand level. The continued elevated
level of jobless claims data does not bode well for the June
non-farm payroll report coming out on July 8th.
We didn't have much on the earnings front this morning, though the
second quarter earnings season is less than two weeks away now.
Constellation Brands (STZ) came ahead of
expectations, while
Darden Restaurants (DRI) and
Apollo Group (APOL) report after the close
today.
APOLLO GROUP (APOL): Free Stock Analysis Report
DARDEN RESTRNT (DRI): Free Stock Analysis Report
CONSTELLATN BRD (STZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
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