Google programmers react live to the premature earnings announcement
Dow: 13,549, -8 (-0.06%) S&P 500: 1,457, -4 (-0.24%)
The Power Rangers. Cargo shorts. Maybe even the Yankees 2012 season. Sadly, all good things come to an end. Including the market’s winning streak this week. Some mixed US econ data and poor earnings from Google pushed stocks down for the first time in a week. Despite some solid economic news from growth engine China, the Dow barely budged most of the day before finishing down 9 points.
Weekly Jobless Claims rise after previous week’s mistake, Philly manufacturing grows
Remember last week when one state forgot to report how many of its loyal citizens applied for unemployment benefits? Weekly jobless claims fell to their lowest level in years. So investors were expecting this week’s reading to jump back up to compensate. And it did. First-time unemployment claims jumped by 46,000 to reach an annualized total of 365,000. The bottom line though is that economists consider less than 400,000 claims to be a sign that the economy’s doing OK. Despite the uninspiring jobless numbers, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Mid-Atlantic Manufacturing Survey rose in September for the 1st time in 6 months, a sign of stabilization in the region. Which means one thing – cheesesteak party.
Google stock falls 8% when earnings accidentally released early. Mobile device usage hurts profits
R.R. Donnelley‘s got a premature filing problem. The reporting firm was told to release Google’s (GOOG) 3rd quarter earnings after markets closed today – but they came out around 12:30, waaay too early & ahead of schedule. The unfinished filings released to the market included comical edit notes like “PENDING LARRY’S COMMENTS” (Larry Page is the CEO). The trending meme @PendingLarry: Man, our privacy was WAY invaded today. Google profits were down 20% compared to last year as more people access the search engine on mobile platforms, which don’t make as much money through ads. Investors’ knee-jerk reaction was to sell, and sell they did…the stock fell 11% in seconds before trading was halted. Finally at 3:20 Google completed the release with CEO commentary, and shares ended down 8% in the last half hour of trading. Firms know ads are less effective on phones, so Google’s key “per click” ad sales are falling as they suffer the same symptoms as Facebook and Zynga…the iPhone 5′s screen is a half-inch bigger, but still no place for advertisements.
Tomorrow:
- Existing Home Sales in the morning…
- …GE, McDonalds, and Manpower earnings in the afternoon.
- After concerns all summer about China’s powerhouse economy slowing down, the Chinese gov’t reported today that industrial output increased more than expected in September & GDP growth slipped from 7.6% to 7.4% last quarter, but matched forecasts (by comparison, US GDP is just under 2%)…The question now is how much markets will applaud these developments Friday
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