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What The Street Thinks of The Jobless Report

Published: Friday, 6 Nov 2009 | 9:32 AM ET

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By: Bob Pisani
CNBC Reporter

S&P Futures dropped about 10 points as the October Unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983.

While this will be the headline in the papers, bear in mind that unemployment in the 1982 recession peaked at 10.8 percent at the end of 1982.

October Nonfarm Payrolls were also worse than expected, with a loss of 190,000 jobs vs. expectations of a loss of 175,000. There were revisions UPWARD in August and September.

The Average Workweek was unchanged at 33.0 hours, a disappointment.

Elsewhere:

1) The streets outside the New York Stock Exchange are stuffed with screaming Yankees fans awaiting the ticker tape parade this morning...many have been outside all night (and look it).

2) The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the health care reform plan TOMORROW.

3) Fast-money, high volume financials—Fannie Mae [FNM Loading... () ], Freddie Mac [FRE Loading... () ] and AIG [AIG Loading... () ] down about 10 percent each this morning.

AIG falls 10 percent pre-open, turning in its second straight quarterly profit. Insurance operations continued to be particularly weak (general insurance premiums down 13 percent, life insurance premiums down 39 percent), but the financial firm's results were helped by higher asset write-ups.

CEO Robert Benmosche warned of "continued volatility in reported results in the coming quarters" due to ongoing restructuring charges.

Fannie Mae down as it reported $22 billion of credit-loss provisions and foreclosed-property costs.

4) CBS [CBS Loading... () ] earnings came in better than estimates ($0.25 vs. $0.22 est.), propelled by sales of syndicated TV shows and higher premium cable fees. Advertising still remained weak with TV ad sales falling 5 percent. Due to poor advertising environments, radio revenues also fell 19 percent while revenues at its outdoor operations plunged 23 percent.

However CEO Les Moonves noted that advertising trends were improving and reaffirmed the media giant's full-year profit outlook.

5) Sunoco [SUN Loading... () ] reported a bigger-than-expected Q3 loss (loss of $0.29 vs. loss of $0.10 est.) on a 25 percent drop in refining margins. Gasoline demand remained weaker, yet higher oil prices put pressure on the oil refiner's results. The $118 million refining loss was a significant reversal from the $398 million the division earned in the year ago quarter.