For Tuesday, the market will be turning its attention to non-farm labor productivity results, as well as, unit labor costs, which are two important labor economic indicators. Other than that, however, pertinent news is pretty light this morning. The non-farm productivity results will show how productive labor was in the month of July, which is configured by dividing GDP by the hours worked in the month. If the number is positive year over year, it shows a healthy economy, whereas a negative number shows inflation. A beat here would help to provide the market that spark to rally, but a miss will continue to produce the selling the market saw yesterday. Both indicators are released at 8:30 AM.
Futures are down slightly going into today’s session. At 8:00 AM, the Nasdaq is down 4 points, the S&P has shaved close to 4 points, and the Dow is down 11. Futures have come off positive numbers that were seen earlier today as the European markets have turned negative after following Asia to a positive morning.
One bright spot heading into the day were the Asian markets that saw bullish news from China about its labor, retail, and exports, which according to the government all improved exceptionally well in the month of July. The news helped to drive the Hang Seng up around 0.7%. Japan and South Korea’s markets were both doing well on the news, as well as, the decision to keep key interest rates steady, decided by both countries’ central bank.
There is not much coming through in way of earnings reporting this morning as the earnings season starts to cool off. One important earnings reporting I did see, however, was from Fossil Inc. The company saw its profits drop 34% in the latest quarter, but the company did beat estimates. There are a number of big name retailers releasing earnings throughout the end of the week, such as Kohl’s, Liz Claiborne, Macy’s, Urban Outfitters, and Wal-Mart. It is good to see the specialty retailer functioning well in the economic times.
The lack of market direction and valuable fundamental news has made the buy and sell of the day tough, but I was considering applying some of the Oxen Gamble of the Day logic to my Buy Pick of the Day in a more safe version.
Buy Pick of the Day: Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS)
I noticed yesterday that nearly every company releasing earnings in after hours was up…
