The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?
5 Signs You're Getting Robbed at the Hospital
The day before Thanksgiving is always an unusual one. We had a slew of economic data today and that all propelled shares higher than what the pre-market indications were.The largest figure today was that jobless claims finally broke under the 500K per week mark... Initial Jobless Claims came in at 466,000, under the 495,000 expected by Bloomberg. The continuing jobless claims also fell by 190,000 to 5,423,000.The Department of Energy's weekly oil inventories data did show gains after recent drops. This was in crude, gasoline, and refining capacity, with distillates as the only loser. The data on Personal Income & Spending for September were +0.2% on income and +0.7% on spending, versus Dow Jones estimates of +0.1% and +0.6%, respectively.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,464.40 +30.69 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,110.63 +4.98 (0.45%)
Nasdaq 2,176.05 +6.87 (0.32%)
TOP ANALYST CALLS
TOP MARKET RUMORS
Another top area was housing as October sales of single-family homes posted a 6.2% gain to an annualized rate of 430,000. The prices paid is still dragging, but still marks another positive.
Durable Orders for the month of October was a disappointing -0.6% versus the Bloomberg estimate of +0.5%. Ex-defense: this was positive and the prior month's reading was revised to +2.0% from +1.4%. One other disappointment was the University of Michigan confidence data staying low, but this number is grossly discounted by traders due to its small sampling and it being a revision.
There is also a preview of all the Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales from major retailers like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) and Target Corporation (TGT) as the price matching and free shipping or low-priced shipping seems to be less prevalent than just a week ago.
It also now seems likely Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) may triumph over Google, Inc. (GOOG) in the Christmas spirit if the most popular data on 'top searches' is accurate based on some personal shopping comparison data.
One interesting announcement was the timing of the announcement from Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) that CFO Chris Liddell was leaving the company at the end of the year. Despite most stocks being up, Microsoft was down 0.9% at $29.65 this afternoon ahead of the closing bell. Another interesting note is that few consider it worth much note and most are giving the company a pass for what might be a red flag elsewhere.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jon Ogg is a partner and editor for 24/7 Wall St.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
