| Market Summary |
Investors couldn't decide just how they felt about the latest employment figures Friday, bumping both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up while sending the Dow Jones down a tick. January employment figures weren't as hot as some analysts expected, with the unemployment rate edging to 4.6% - the highest in four months. All in all, the US economy added 110,000 jobs last month, about 40,000 less than expected. Shares of Amazon (AMZN: Charts, News, Offers) fell over 3% after analysts reacted poorly to lower 4Q earnings, despite the fact that the earnings topped estimates. Falling energy prices hurt Chevron (CVX: Charts, News, Offers), which reported lower quarterly profit due to falling natural gas prices. Oil rose to slightly above $59/barrel, the highest level so far this year. Overall, the major indices saw gains, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up by over 1.5%. The Dow Jones increased by 1.25%.
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| Market News |
A federal jury rejected a former Coca-Cola (KO: Charts, News, Offers) secretary's claim that she was duped by two ex-cons and convicted her Friday of conspiring to steal trade secrets from the world's largest beverage maker in an effort to sell them to rival Pepsi (PBG: Charts, News, Offers).
Joya Williams faces up to 10 years in prison. No sentencing date was immediately set. (Source: Yahoo! Finance) Full Story
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Unless YouTube is ready for a commitment, Viacom (VIA: Charts, News, Offers) wants to stop letting the popular online video site take advantage of its content.
The parent company of media properties like MTV and Comedy Central has asked YouTube to remove more than 100,000 clips from the video-sharing Web site immediately. (Source: The Street) Full Story
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The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to a four-month high of 4.6 percent as somewhat wary employers added fewer new jobs in January. Wage gains were more modest.
The newest report on the economy, released Friday by the Labor Department, suggested that the jobs market got off to a slower start in 2007 yet still remains in decent shape. The more subdued job growth — 111,000 positions — is consistent with the expectation that growth in the economy as a whole will moderate this year. (Source: MSNBC) Full Story
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| Market Analysis |
Just when you thought oil prices were getting under control, they've shot back up, closing on Feb. 1 at more than $57 a barrel after briefly dropping below $50 just two weeks earlier. Now, more bad news. A study by four government economists says more attention should be paid to a long-standing but little-heeded indicator of where oil prices are headed—namely, the futures market. And that indicator—imperfect as it is—says prices are likely to rise a little past $60 a barrel and then stay in that range for years to come. (Source: BusinessWeek) Full Story
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Pharmaceutical investors are enthused about the merger rumor du jour: the potential acquisition of New York drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY: Charts, News, Offers) by Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis. A French newsletter reported that the companies are in talks, while Bristol may have even hired bankers to scope out potential deals. Bristol-Myers shares have jumped nearly 10%. (Source: Forbes) Full Story
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After rising in tandem for much of 2006, bonds and equities are starting to diverge, to the detriment of some sections of the fixed-income markets in the first month of the year. It might not last.
In January, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of U.S. stocks eked out a 1.4 percent gain, while Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index climbed 2 percent. Fixed-income returns, meantime, are a sea of red, with U.K. bonds maturing in more than a year losing 1.5 percent. Euro-area debt has fallen 0.4 percent and the U.S. futures contract on long-dated bonds more than a point. (Source: Bloomberg) Full Story
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| Market Overview |
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| DJIA |
12,653.49 |
-20.19 |
| S&P |
1,448.39 |
+2.45 |
| NASDAQ |
2,475.88 |
+7.50 |
| 10Yr |
4.827% |
-0.01 |
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| On This Date |
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February 2, 2000: Network Solutions says that antitrust officials dropped investigations of the company's alleged monopoly in the Internet domain-name registration business.
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| Notable Quotable |
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Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily-understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher five, ten and twenty years from now. - Warren Buffett
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| Previous Newsletters |
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| February 1, 2007 |
| January 31, 2007 |
| January 30, 2007 |
| January 29, 2007 |
| January 26, 2007 |
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