June 25th-June 29th
Yes, we like to assign names to our body parts. And if the stock market was christening its biceps, the left would be “Health Care Supreme Court Decision” and the right would be “European Summit.” Both got flexed this week and moved the markets. Euro leaders meeting to talk debt crisis agreed to a 120B euro economic growth package, create a union of the continent’s banks and made it easier for Italy & Spain to potentially receive bailout funds – surprisingly huge achievements for the 2-day event, sending the Dow up nearly 300 points for its best day of the year Friday.
The court ruling to uphold Obamacare hurt health insurance companies who will have to cover more folks no matter their health history, but sent hospital providers skyward because it requires coverage for those who might not otherwise stop by Grey’s Anatomy. The US econ data highlight was a string of decent housing reports that analysts hope may signal a bottoming-out of the real estate market. Home prices may still be down nearly 2% from June ’11, but the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed a 3-month trend of rising prices, while “new home sales” & “pending home sales” both increased – it ain’t fixed, but that ain’t bad.
Most news out of corporate world wasn’t too pretty: Research in Motion will cut 1/3 of its workforce, analysts projected Facebook shares won’t climb back to their $38 IPO price by December, Barclays paid 1/2 a billion fine for skewing interest rates on clients and JPMorgan‘s $2B trading loss might quadruple. On the flip side, Belgian beer conglomorate AB InBev (owner of Buds) agreed to purchase Modelo (owner of Coronas) for $20B and NewsCorp jumped on news it will split its paper (like The Wall Street Journal) and entertainment holdings (like 20th Century Fox).
Friday’s big one helped the Dow finish the week up 1.9% and the S&P 500 complete its best June since ’99.
Links Worth Snacking On:
- Reuters – Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel depicted as both Nazi and Terminator in the media
- NYT DealBook – JPMorgan’s trading loss from $2…$3…$9 Billion?
- Wall Street Oasis – Some of the toughest finance interview questions out there. You ready?
- NYMag – Happy 5th Birthday, iPhone. Congratulations Apple revenues….
- Graphic – ….And how about more iPhones are sold in a day than babies born? That is insane
- Chart – An attractive graphic on national debts across the world
This Week:
- Monday – June ISM Manufacturing
- Tuesday – May Factory Orders, June Vehicle Sales (Stock Market closes early at 1pm)
- Wednesday – STOCK MARKET CLOSED FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY
- Thursday – June ADP Jobs Survey (a preview of Friday’s Employment Report), Weekly Jobless Claims, June ISM Non-manufacturing
- Friday – June Non-Farm Payrolls, June Unemployment Rate
© 2012 MarketSnacks
