Dow surged 195 (a breath under 16K), advancers over decliners better than 3-1 & NAZ added 43. The MLP index shot up 3+ to the 466s (just below the 468 record last year) & the REIT index went up 1+ to the 279s. Junk bond funds were mixed while Treasuries fell back. Oil is hovering near $100 & gold rose on negative bets about the Federal Reserve (FED) stimulus plan.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](http://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif)
US job openings fell in Dec from an almost 6 year high & hiring slowed, a sign the labor market cooled at the end of the year. The number of positions wait to be filled declined 43K to 3.99M, from a revised 4.03M in the prior month, the Labor Dept said. Fewer quit their jobs. The report follows data last week that showed a smaller-than-projected gain in Jan payrolls after a weather-depressed Dec, marking the weakest back-to-back advance in 3 years. Today’s report helps shed light on the dynamics behind the monthly employment figures. The drop in openings indicates employers are awaiting a pickup in demand before adding to headcount, a sign the slowdown in Dec payrolls extended beyond the inclement weather. Employment rose 113K in Jan after a 75K increase in Dec. The jobless rate dropped to 6.6% last month, the lowest since Oct 2008, from 6.7% in Dec. Today’s Jobs Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed the number hired fell to 4.44M, pushing the hiring rate down to 3.2% from 3.3%. 2.37M quit their jobs in Dec, down from the prior month’s 2.41M. The quits rate, which shows the willingness of workers to leave their jobs, fell to 1.7% from 1.8%, the highest in more than 5 years. “Labor market indicators were mixed but on balance showed further improvement,” FED policy makers said in a statement following their Jan meeting.
Job Openings in U.S. Decrease in December as Hiring Slows
Sprint reported a narrower loss & better-than-predicted sales after the company shed fewer subscribers than projected. Revenue rose 1.5% to $9.14B, beating the $8.99B estimate. The company posted a net loss 26¢ per share, compared with a loss of 44¢ a year earlier. CEO Dan Hesse is working to revive growth following its acquisition by SoftBank in Jul for $21B. Its outdated Nextel network was closed on Jun 30, losing some subscribers to other carriers in the process. The company lost 69K monthly subscribers last qtr, aided by the addition of 466K tablet customers. Analysts had predicted a total drop of 371K. The company expects 2014 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization to be $6.5-$6.7B, up from $5.4B last year. The average contract customer’s phone bill was $64.11 last qtr, little changed from $64.28 in the previous qtr. Including customers acquired in the purchase of US Cellular assets last year, the average bill was $63.44. Analysts had projected $64.01. Sprint is spending $16B over 2 years on network upgrades & the company also introduced a program called Sprint Framily that lets friends & family share the same wireless plan. The company stock rose 21¢.
If you would like to learn more about Sprint, click on this link:
http://club.ino.com/trend/?symb=S&a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Sprint Fourth-Quarter Sales Top Analysts’ Estimates as It Keeps Customers
Photo: Bloomberg
Primerica rose after announcing a $150M stock buyback & posting Q4 profit that beat the estimates. Q4 operating profit, which excludes some investment results, was 84¢, 5¢ higher than the estimate. The share repurchase plan is twice the size of the last buyback program which was announced in 2012. PRI was previously owned by Citigroup (C) which began selling its stake in 2010. The insurer sells policies mostly thru part-time representatives. The sales force increased 3.5% to 96K representatives at the end of 2013 from a year earlier. Experienced brokers at the insurer train new ones for free & earn commissions on their underlings’ sales. Net income slipped 7.6% to $37M in the Q4 on costs tied a legal dispute in Florida. The stock surged $3.53.
If you would like to learn more about PRI, click on this link:
http://club.ino.com/trend/?symb=PRI&a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Buyers were feeling great today after Janet Yellen promised to continue with the easy money policy at the FED. The idea is that low interest rates & rising stocks will encourage more spending by consumers & lead to more GDP growth. But so far, these forces have only brought limited growth, producing the slowest recovery from a recession in decades. Even the 3% predicted growth rate for GDP in 2014 is only moderate. Unemployment has come down. But part of that improvement is do to workers giving up looking for work. In addition, many new jobs are low paying. Buyers today are not worried by these clouds.
Dow Jones Industrials
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
Treasury yields:
U.S. 3-month |
0.05% | |
U.S. 2-year |
0.33% | |
U.S. 10-year |
2.72% |
| CLH14.NYM | ....Crude Oil Mar 14 | ....99.90 |  ...0.16 | (0.2%) |
US job openings fell in Dec from an almost 6 year high & hiring slowed, a sign the labor market cooled at the end of the year. The number of positions wait to be filled declined 43K to 3.99M, from a revised 4.03M in the prior month, the Labor Dept said. Fewer quit their jobs. The report follows data last week that showed a smaller-than-projected gain in Jan payrolls after a weather-depressed Dec, marking the weakest back-to-back advance in 3 years. Today’s report helps shed light on the dynamics behind the monthly employment figures. The drop in openings indicates employers are awaiting a pickup in demand before adding to headcount, a sign the slowdown in Dec payrolls extended beyond the inclement weather. Employment rose 113K in Jan after a 75K increase in Dec. The jobless rate dropped to 6.6% last month, the lowest since Oct 2008, from 6.7% in Dec. Today’s Jobs Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed the number hired fell to 4.44M, pushing the hiring rate down to 3.2% from 3.3%. 2.37M quit their jobs in Dec, down from the prior month’s 2.41M. The quits rate, which shows the willingness of workers to leave their jobs, fell to 1.7% from 1.8%, the highest in more than 5 years. “Labor market indicators were mixed but on balance showed further improvement,” FED policy makers said in a statement following their Jan meeting.
Job Openings in U.S. Decrease in December as Hiring Slows
Sprint reported a narrower loss & better-than-predicted sales after the company shed fewer subscribers than projected. Revenue rose 1.5% to $9.14B, beating the $8.99B estimate. The company posted a net loss 26¢ per share, compared with a loss of 44¢ a year earlier. CEO Dan Hesse is working to revive growth following its acquisition by SoftBank in Jul for $21B. Its outdated Nextel network was closed on Jun 30, losing some subscribers to other carriers in the process. The company lost 69K monthly subscribers last qtr, aided by the addition of 466K tablet customers. Analysts had predicted a total drop of 371K. The company expects 2014 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization to be $6.5-$6.7B, up from $5.4B last year. The average contract customer’s phone bill was $64.11 last qtr, little changed from $64.28 in the previous qtr. Including customers acquired in the purchase of US Cellular assets last year, the average bill was $63.44. Analysts had projected $64.01. Sprint is spending $16B over 2 years on network upgrades & the company also introduced a program called Sprint Framily that lets friends & family share the same wireless plan. The company stock rose 21¢.
If you would like to learn more about Sprint, click on this link:
http://club.ino.com/trend/?symb=S&a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Sprint Fourth-Quarter Sales Top Analysts’ Estimates as It Keeps Customers
Sprint (S)
Primerica rose after announcing a $150M stock buyback & posting Q4 profit that beat the estimates. Q4 operating profit, which excludes some investment results, was 84¢, 5¢ higher than the estimate. The share repurchase plan is twice the size of the last buyback program which was announced in 2012. PRI was previously owned by Citigroup (C) which began selling its stake in 2010. The insurer sells policies mostly thru part-time representatives. The sales force increased 3.5% to 96K representatives at the end of 2013 from a year earlier. Experienced brokers at the insurer train new ones for free & earn commissions on their underlings’ sales. Net income slipped 7.6% to $37M in the Q4 on costs tied a legal dispute in Florida. The stock surged $3.53.
If you would like to learn more about PRI, click on this link:
http://club.ino.com/trend/?symb=PRI&a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Primerica (PRI)
Buyers were feeling great today after Janet Yellen promised to continue with the easy money policy at the FED. The idea is that low interest rates & rising stocks will encourage more spending by consumers & lead to more GDP growth. But so far, these forces have only brought limited growth, producing the slowest recovery from a recession in decades. Even the 3% predicted growth rate for GDP in 2014 is only moderate. Unemployment has come down. But part of that improvement is do to workers giving up looking for work. In addition, many new jobs are low paying. Buyers today are not worried by these clouds.
Dow Jones Industrials
I’m a huge fan of INO & from what I have seen so far, their service Marketclub! This isn’t a stripped down version, everything in MarketClub is available to you. I don’t want to give everything away, but you’ll have unlimited access to my favorite three tools: Trade Triangles, Smart Scan & Alerts!
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Here’s that link:
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I’d recommend you jump on this now.
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