Upbeat Jobs Report Tempers Recession Concerns
The nation's unemployment rate dropped as employers added 117,000 jobs in July tempering investor concerns of a double dip recession. The markets opened mixed with
the
Dow adding 3 points to 11,386 while Nasdaq lost 18 points to
2538.
On the upside
Second quarter earnings for Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) more than doubled to surpass analyst expectations by a wide margin as revenue surged and the online travel service forecast current quarter results ahead of estimates.Evercore Partners and MKM Partners said that Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) portfolio of patents may be worth up to $10 billion.
EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) reported sharply higher second quarter earnings that surged five-fold to beat analyst expectations as revenue soared. The natural gas and crude oil company also announced a partnership with Nustar (NYSE: NS) to build a shale rail offloading facility in Louisiana.
On the downside
Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCD) warned that third quarter earnings and revenue would fall short of its previous guidance.
Second quarter earnings for SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD) more than doubled but the results missed estimates.
MIPS Technologies (Nasdaq: MIPS) disappointed with sharply lower fourth quarter earnings that fell short of expectations and announced the retirement of vice president and chief financial officer Maury Austin.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 5 points to 721.
