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Stocks Fall for 2nd Week; Jobs Report Disappoints

Published: Friday, 2 Oct 2009 | 7:32 PM ET

Text Size

By: Cindy Perman
Writer

Stocks ended lower Friday as a dismal jobs report capped a string of disappointing economic reports this week, which cast doubt on the recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 21.91, or 0.2 percent, to close at 9,487.37. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each lost 0.5 percent each.

All three major indexes finished lower for a second straight week. The Dow has lost 3.4 percent in the past two weeks, while the S&P and Nasdaq are down 4 percent.

The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, ticked higher, ending the week at 28.63.

Major U.S. Indexes

	Last	Change	Today's % Change	1 Week % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	9487.37	-21.91	-0.23%	-1.84%	8.10%
NASDAQ	2048.11	-9.37	-0.46%	-2.05%	29.87%
S&P 500	1025.17	-4.68	-0.45%	-1.84%	13.50%
Russell 2000	580.25	-3.51	-0.60%	-3.12%	16.18%
CBOE VIX	28.63	0.36	1.27%	11.79%	-28.43%

The market got another disappointing reading on manufacturing: Factory orders unexpectedly fell 0.8 percent in August. This came a day after the ISM reported its gauge of manufacturing pulled back last month.

But investors were more bothered by the September jobs report.

The Labor Department said the economy shed 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. The unemployment rate was as expected but the payrolls drop was much higher than the 180,000 job loss economists surveyed by Reuters had expected.

Investors have grown increasingly wary of the recovery following several disappointing economic numbers recently. More than two-thirds of readers polled by CNBC.com had expected the jobs number to be worse than economists had predicted.

But economists said the market may have been overreacting.

"[E]conomic data rarely move in a consistent pattern ... we should not be surprised that there are bumps in the road," Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors wrote in a note to clients. "Unfortunately, investors want the latest data to always be better than the previous ones and that is unrealistic. Thus, they react wildly."

Naroff and other economists pointed out that a huge chunk of September's job losses came from the government and therefore, private-payroll losses weren't as bad as the headline number would make it seem.

"If, as I suspect, the October numbers turn out to be a lot better, we will all come back to the conclusion that the economy is moving out of the recession but the recovery is likely to be quite sluggish," Naroff said.

General Electric [FSLR Loading... () ] was the biggest percentage decliner on the Dow, off 3.8 percent, as the conglomerate continues talks with Comcast [CMCSA Loading... () ] about whether Comcast will buy a 51-percent stake in GE's NBC Universal unit, which is the parent of CNBC. GE CEO Jeff Immelt said the company is mulling a partnership or IPO for the unit. Comcast said it hopes to reach a deal in 2 to 3 weeks.

Recovery-sensitive tech and industrial stocks were also depressed today, with Cisco, HP, Boeing and Caterpillar rounding out the Dow's bottom five.

FOR INVESTORS

Apple [AAPL Loading... () ] was among the few bright spots in tech today, up 2.2 percent after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral."

Shares of CIT Group [CIT Loading... () ] soared 10 percent following news that the commercial lender is launching a debt-exchange plan in hopes of avoiding a bankruptcy filing.

Wal-Mart [WMT Loading... () ] shares ticked higher after Chairman Rob Walton warned that the retailer would ride out what is expected to be a slow US recovery, while its Asian operations should do better.

First Solar [FSLR Loading... () ], which is replacing Wyeth in the S&P 500, advanced 4.3 percent. Wyeth is being bought by Pfizer [PFE Loading... () ].

Pepsi [PEP Loading... () ] rose 4.2 percent after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock.

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Crude oil futures [US@CL.1 Loading... () ], which have consistently tracked stock market movement, also tumbled after the US jobs report, ending the week at $69.95 a barrel. Gold closed out at $1,004.30 a troy ounce. And the dollar continued to retreat against major currencies.

Volume was average, with 1.4 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners outpaced advancers, roughly 2 to 1.

The week had started out strong, fueled by a wave of M&A activity, and logged their best quarter in 11 years. But it was all downhill from there, with Dow 10,000 talk fading and the index ending below 9,500.

Nine out of 10 key S&P sectors finished lower, with consumer staples the only one finishing higher. The biggest decliners were industrials, materials and energy.

Next week, investors will be keeping an eye on the dollar for any insight on which way stocks are going. Plus, we'll get readings on the services sector, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, and reports from major retailers on September sales. And, earnings season unofficially kicks off with a report from Alcoa [AA Loading... () ] on Wednesday.

Next Week:

MONDAY: Supreme Court meets; ISM services index; Fed's Dudley speaks
TUESDAY: IMF meeting; Fed's Fisher, Hoenig speak; Earnings from Yum Brands
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage applications; weekly crude inventories; consumer credit; Earnings from Costco, Family Dollar, Alcoa
THURSDAY: Chain-store sales; foreclosure report; BOE, ECB rate decisions; weekly jobless claims; wholesale trade; Fed's Hoenig speaks; Earnings from Pepsi, Marriott, Chevron (interim)
FRIDAY: Market peak 2-year anniversary (Dow at 14,164.53); international trade

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