Dow falls 47 ahead of big jobs report

Updated: 8:42 p.m. ET

Stocks looked like they might finesse a decent little rally today thanks to a gain in Apple (AAPL), lower jobless claims and a rebound in oil prices that seemed to offset worries about a slowing global economy.

But the rebound stalled in the last hour of trading as another head wind came to bear on markets: Many investors preferred to wait for Friday's big jobs report. The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) ended with small losses. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) managed a tiny gain, its fourth in a row.

The economic fears were triggered when the People's Bank of China and the European Central Bank cut interest rates and the Bank of England initiated a new round of government-bond purchases to support the British economy. The moves came within 45 minutes of each other. Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, said the economic slowdown was hitting even the strongest members of the European Union, which would mean Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Apple closed up $10.53 to $609.94, its best close since April 12 and its first close above $600 since April 27. The catalyst was reports that the company is getting ready to produce a new version of its iPad with a 7-inch screen. The iPad was introduced with a 10.5-inch screen.

The Dow finished down 47 points to 12,897. The blue chips had been down as many as 92 points and up as many as 17 points. The S&P 500 fell 6 points to 1,368. The Nasdaq finished at 2,976.12, up 4 one-hundredths of a point. The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX) gained 2 points to 2,647 after giving up nearly all of a 16-point gain.

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The market had closed at two-month highs on Tuesday.

U.S. jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 374,000 in the week ended June 23 from 388,000 the week before and the lowest level in six weeks. The Labor Department will issue its June report on payrolls and unemployment before the stock market opens Friday.

Consumer discretionary stocks were the strongest sector of the market, largely because of gains for discount retailers, which generally reported decent same-store sales for June compared with a year ago. Ross Stores (ROST) was up $4.41 to $67.19. TJX Companies (TJX) added $1.59 to $44.09. Upscale department store operator Nordstrom (JWN) added 97 cents to $51.53.

A disappointing sales report came from Costco Wholesale (COST), whose June sales were up 3% when Wall Street had expected 3.7%. Shares fell 42 cents to $94. They had hit an all-time high of $95.55 on Monday. And there was concern the stock, up nearly 15% going into today's trading, had run out of gas.

The weakest sector was financial stocks, largely because of European worries. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) were the weakest of the 30 Dow stocks, down $1.50 to $34.38 and down 24 cents to $7.82, respectively. Citigroup (C) was off 81 cents to $26.84. 

Home Depot (HD), up 46 cents to $52.11, and McDonald's (MCD), up 72 cents to $89.30, were the top Dow performers. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) hit a record $71.30 before falling back to $71.08, up 33 cents.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) was up 26 cents to $35.47. Reuters reported that the gold-and-copper company may do an initial public offering for its Freeport Indonesia subsidiary. The operation controls the Grasberg mine on the island of New Guinea. The mine has the largest gold reserves and is the second-largest copper mine in the world. The Indonesian government wants to limit foreign ownership in mines to no more than 49%  after 10 years of production.

After the close, Informatica (INFA) shares fell 25% to $32.34 after rising 36 cents to $43.37 in regular trading. The company, which markets data-integration software, warned that second-quarter revenue will be $180 million to $190 million, down from the Street consensus estimate of 217.2 million. Earnings will be 27 cents to 28 cents a share, shy of the Street estimate of 37 cents. The company blamed the shortfall on macro issues involving Europe. It also announced a $100 million share buyback and said Worldwide Field Operations chief Paul Hoffman will retire by year's end.

Some good news ahead of Friday's jobs report
The jobless-claims report was just one bit of good news on the jobs front. There were two others:

The ADP Employment Report estimated 176,000 nonfarm jobs were created in June from a revised estimate of 136,000 in May. That was much better than the consensus estimate of 95,000. ADP said private-sector jobs rose by 160,000, up from a revised 137,000 in May.

The ADP report is closely watched as a barometer of Friday's big jobs and unemployment report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET. It also can misread the trends that it sees.

The second was buried in the Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing Report. The report showed a slowing in growth in the sector. But it also showed that the employment index component rose in June from May.

The consensus has been that the report will show 90,000 nonfarm jobs created and an unemployment rate of 8.2%. Goldman Sachs, however, raised its payrolls estimate from 75,000 to 125,000.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Thur.			Tues.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$87.22			$87.66			2.66%			-11.75%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$2.7684			$2.7585			2.16%			-5.00%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$2.9450			$2.8990			4.28%			-1.47%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.7648			$2.7229			5.05%			4.04%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$100.70			$99.77			2.97%			-6.22%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.3380			$3.3360			-0.45%			1.89%
(per gallon; AAA)
U.S. markets were closed Wednesday for the 4th of July holiday.

Crude oil crawls back; gold falls on a rising dollar
Crude oil (-CL) in New York was at $87.42 a barrel, off 24 cents, but it had been down to as low as $86.50 until an Energy Department report showed domestic oil supplies much lower than expected. Brent crude had fallen to as low as $99.30. It was up to $100.90 a barrel, a gain of $1.13.

Energy stocks were initially lower, but losses were trimmed as crude oil prices rallied. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) fell to as low as $66.86 but climbed back to $67.13, down 86 cents. Exxon Mobil (XOM) was off 71 cents to $85.57. Chevron (CVX) was off $1.34 to $106.03.

Gold (-GC), meanwhile, dropped $14.70 to $1,607.10 an ounce. Silver (-SI) and copper (-HG) also were lower.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.597% from Tuesday's 1.631%.

Worries about a global slowdown rise
The actions of central banks in China, Europe and Britain signaled a growing level of alarm about the world economy, although suggestions of coordinated action were downplayed.

Of the three, the surprise move was from Beijing, which lowered its lending rate by 31 basis points to 6% after an interest rate cut just a month ago, which also came out of the blue.

"It shows that policymakers' concerns about the global economy have only grown," economist Mark Williams, an economist at Capital Economics, told Reuters.

The European Central Bank cut rates to a record low 0.75% following a dire run of economic data. But it steered clear of bolder moves such as reviving its government bond-buying program or flooding banks with more long-term liquidity.

The Bank of England, whose rates are already at a record low 0.5%, said it would restart its printing presses and buy 50 billion pounds ($78 billion) of assets with newly created money to help the economy out of recession.

The moves pushed the euro to as low as $1.23701 today; it finished at $1.2387. The euro has fallen 4.4% against the dollar this year.

European stocks were down sharply at first, but recovered somewhat. Stocks in Germany were off 0.5%. French stocks were down 1.2%, but British stocks were up slightly.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Thur.			Tues.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0700%			0.080%			-12.50%			600.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.673%			0.697%			-7.68%			-18.92%
10-year Treasury note			1.597%			1.631%			-3.74%			-14.64%
30-year Treasury bond			2.722%			2.744%			-1.48%			-5.78%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			82.942			81.872			1.45%			3.01%
British pound			1.5538			1.5601			-1.06%			0.00%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.644			£0.641			1.07%			0.00%
Euro in dollars			$1.24			$1.25			-1.87%			-4.40%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.807			€ 0.798			1.91%			4.60%
U.S. $ in yen			80.19			79.87			0.56%			4.01%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.38			6.34			0.08%			0.82%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.988			$0.988			0.57%			0.72%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.013			$1.013			-0.56%			-0.71%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,609.40			$1,621.80			0.32%			2.72%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.493			$3.540			-0.10%			1.66%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$27.6720			$28.2800			0.22%			-0.87%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$8.3800			$7.9925			10.66%			28.38%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$7.0875			$6.745			11.62%			9.59%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.7058			0.726			-1.05%			-23.01%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.8035			1.8045			5.65%			-21.47%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$87.22			$87.66			2.66%			-11.75%
(per barrel)
U.S. markets were closed Wednesday for the 4th of July holiday.