Stocks slide ahead of unemployment report

Updated: 6:48 p.m. ET

 

Stocks struggled today as a disappointing report on the non-manufacturing economy offset relatively decent news on initial jobless claims.

But the market was really marking time until Friday morning when the Labor Department releases its April report on nonfarm payrolls and the U.S. unemployment rate. The report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show the economy added 160,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 8.2%, the rate reported for March.

The market saw some extremes. Whole Foods Market (WFM) hit an all-time intraday high of $90.71 before slipping back to $90.69, up $6.38. The stock was the top performer in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) and the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX). But GreenMountain Coffee Roasters' (GMCR) shares plunged $23.65 to $25.87 after guiding lower for its fiscal third and fourth quarters.

Just before the close, Facebook said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it expects to sell about 337 million shares at $28 to $35 a share. That implies a valuation for the company of $77 billion to $96 billion, a bit lighter than expected, The Wall Street Journal said.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed down down 62 points to 13,207; the blue chips had been down as many as 91 points. The S&P 500 was off 11 points to 1,392. The NasdaqComposite Index ($COMPX) dropped 36 points to 3,024, and the Nasdaq-100 fell 30 points to 2,705.

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Shares of American International Group (AIG), the insurance giant that is 70% owned by the U.S. government, fell 16 cents to $34.30 after hours from a regular close of $34.14. The company said it earned $3.21 billion, or $1.71 a share, up from $1.3 billion, or 31 cents, a year earlier, when the insurer booked charges related to paying back a Federal Reserve credit line. Operating income of $1.65 a share beat the Street estimate of $1.13.

The company hopes to have the government exit its position by the end of 2013.

LinkedIn (LNKD) shares were up more than 8% after hours to $118.35 from a regular close of $109.41. The company earned 15 cents a share, better than the Street estimate of 9 cents. Revenue was up 101% from a year ago to $188.5 million, beating the Street estimate by $9.9 billion. The company also raised guidance for the second quarter and the year.

ISM Services report disappoints
The market took its cue today from the  Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index for April. The index, which measures activity in service industries, fell to 53.5 for April, the weakest reading of the year, from 56 in March. Economists estimated the index to come in at 55.5 for April. A reading above 50 implies expansion.

Meanwhile, initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 365,000 from a revised 392,000 the week before, the Labor Department said. That offered a little cheer.

European stocks were basically flat, but there were still big worries about Spain's debt problems and the health of the continent overall. As a result, the dollar was higher against major currencies. That depressed commodities such as light sweet crude oil (-CL) in New York and gold (-GC).

Crude oil settled down $2.68 to $102.54 a barrel in New York. Brent crude was down $2.07 to $116.13 a barrel. AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report put the national average price of unleaded gasoline at $3.803, unchanged from Wednesday.

Gold settled down $19.20 to $1,634.80 an ounce. Silver (-SI) was off 63.5 cents to $30.01 an ounce.

The 10-year Treasury yield ended the day at 1.924%, up from 1.922% on Wednesday.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Thur.			Wed.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$102.54			$105.22			-2.22%			3.75%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$3.0869			$3.1425			-3.06%			5.93%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$2.3400			$2.2530			2.41%			-21.71%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$3.0500			$3.0757			-2.39%			14.77%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$116.08			$118.20			-2.89%			8.10%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.8030			$3.8030			-0.34%			16.09%
(per gallon; AAA)

Energy, ISM and retail sales weigh on stocks
Aside from the tensions buildings over Friday's jobs report, three forces were pushing stocks lower.

• Lower oil prices were hitting energy stocks. Declines in shares of Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) accounted for 12 points of the Dow's loss.
• The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for April suggested some weakness in employment. That was unlike the ISM Manufacturing Index for April, released on Tuesday, which showed strength in employment.
• Mixed sales reports for April from major retailers. Costco Wholesale (COST) reported a 4% sales gain for stores open for a year; analysts had been expected a 5.1% gain. Macy's (M) said sales were up 1.2%, compared with the 1.9% consensus estimate.

Easter may have distorted April retail sales
The disappointing retail results follow two consecutive months of strong sales that were boosted by positive economic news about the jobs and housing markets.

"The economy is growing in fits and starts, and we are seeing sales shoot up and down,"  Michae Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, told The Associated Press. "We're in a choppy period."

An average of April's results for 22 retailers rose 0.6% -- the worst performance since November 2009 when the tally was down 0.2%, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The recession officially ended in June 2009. That's in stark contrast to February and March when the group posted an average 4.1% sales gain on signs the housing and jobs markets were improving.

Easter, which usually produces an uptick in sales, was in early April and probably pushed some sales into March. 

Not everyone posted worst-than-expected results. TJX Companies (TJX), which runs Marshalls, T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods, reported that revenue at stores open at least a year rose 6% in April, topping Wall Street's forecast of a 4%, the AP reported. The company also boosted its first-quarter and fiscal 2013 earnings outlooks. Shares fell 8 cents, however, to $42.45.

A day that bulls would rather forget

Only seven of the 30 Dow stocks were higher today, led by Procter & Gamble (PG), up 53 cents to $64.51, and Walt Disney (DIS), up 27 cents to $43.81. The laggards were Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), down 77 cents to $24.48, and Bank of America (BAC), down 16 cents to $8.

Whole Foods was followed at the top of the S&P 500 index by Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), up $3.79 to $54.53, and data-storage company Teradata (TDC), up $4.95 to $77.14 after boosting revenue and earnings guidance for the year. The laggards were Prudential Financial (PRU), down $6.13 to $54.81, and Cablevision Systems (CVC), down $1.16 to $13.54. A total of 86 stocks in the index were higher.

Whole Foods, Google (GOOG) and Dell (DELL) were the only winners among Nasdaq-100 stocks. Green Mountain Coffee, Netflix (NFLX) and Sears Holdings (SHLD) were the laggards.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Thur.			Wed.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0800%			0.080%			-11.11%			700.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.817%			0.819%			0.74%			-1.57%
10-year Treasury note			1.924%			1.922%			0.47%			2.83%
30-year Treasury bond			3.112%			3.114%			0.10%			7.72%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			79.293			79.201			0.56%			-1.53%
British pound			1.6189			1.6205			-0.32%			4.19%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.618			£0.617			0.32%			-4.02%
Euro in dollars			$1.32			$1.32			-0.70%			1.53%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.760			€ 0.760			0.70%			-1.50%
U.S. $ in yen			80.39			80.12			0.48%			4.26%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.33			6.27			0.44%			0.04%
yuan
Canada dollar			$1.012			$1.014			-0.15%			3.13%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$0.989			$0.986			0.16%			-3.04%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,634.80			$1,654.00			-1.77%			4.34%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.736			$3.787			-2.44%			8.73%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$30.0100			$30.6450			-3.24%			7.50%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.1550			$6.1450			-5.96%			-5.71%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$6.1450			$6.115			-3.11%			-4.95%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.8921			0.8951			-0.21%			-2.69%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.7580			1.8275			-2.09%			-23.45%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$102.54			$105.22			-2.22%			3.75%
(per barrel)