Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fluctuated, after equities rebounded yesterday from a three-day retreat, as investors weighed a private report showing companies added more workers than forecast last month.
Twitter Inc. dropped 3.5 percent, falling for a third day, amid an analyst downgrade. Ford Motor Co. gained 1.2 percent after Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally ruled himself out from a race for the top job at Microsoft Corp. Micron Technology Inc. jumped 9.8 percent after reporting quarterly revenue that topped estimates. Forest Laboratories Inc. climbed 16 percent as it agreed to buy Aptalis Pharma for $2.9 billion.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to 1,839.14 at 10:22 a.m. in New York, after falling as much as 0.4 percent earlier. The equities benchmark climbed 30 percent last year, the most since 1997. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 48.34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,482.60.
Recommended For You
"It's a good number," Ryan Larson, the Chicago-based head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., said by phone. His firm oversees $290 billion. "It continues to confirm an improving employment picture. We'll see if the market takes it for that, or whether it causes worry that the Fed will ultimately increase its rate of tapering."
Companies in the U.S. boosted payrolls by 238,000 in December, figures from ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey, showed today. The median forecast of 36 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 200,000 advance.
The Labor Department will announce on Friday figures for new hiring and the unemployment rate last month.
Fed minutes
The Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its December policy meeting at 2 p.m. Washington time today. The central bank is trimming monthly bond buying by $10 billion to $75 billion this month. Three rounds of stimulus have helped propel the S&P 500 higher by as much as 173 percent from a 12- year low in 2009.
"The next few days will begin to set the scene for this year's investment themes," Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail. "Today's Fed minutes and the ADP report will be closely followed by Alcoa kicking off the fourth-quarter reporting season."
Alcoa Inc. will announce results after the market close on Jan. 9. Earnings for companies in the S&P 500 will climb 9.7 percent on average this year, almost twice the rate of 2013. Sales will probably increase 3.8 percent, compared with 2.2 percent last year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Twitter slides
Twitter dropped 3.5 percent to $59.30, increasing its slide for the week to 14 percent. An analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald LP downgraded the shares to sell from hold and said the company's valuation is excessive. Twitter shares debuted in November and rallied 145 percent through the end of 2013.
Ford added 1.2 percent to $15.57. Mulally said he has no other plans except to serve the automaker. He made the comments in an Associated Press interview to end speculation that he may leave for Microsoft.
Microsoft slipped 1.3 percent to $35.95.
Micron Technology jumped 9.8 percent to $23.86. The largest U.S. maker of memory chips reported quarterly revenue that topped analysts' estimates. Revenue in the period through Nov. 28 more than doubled to $4.04 billion, the company said. Analysts on average estimated sales of $3.72 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey.
Forest acquisition
Forest Laboratories climbed 16 percent to $68.31 after it agreed to buy Aptalis, a closely held company whose shareholders include investment firm TPG Capital, to expand in gastrointestinal and cystic fibrosis treatments.
Constellation Brands Inc. gained 9.5 percent to $76.57. The alcoholic beverage company reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates and raised its profit forecast on a stronger outlook for its beer business.
Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. increased 2.7 percent to $4.22. The company obtained a patent in Australia for the use of placental cells in the treatment of ischemia, a condition connected with poor blood flow.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. slid 2.4 percent to $44.99 after Raymond James Financial Inc. downgraded the shares to market perform, a rating similar to hold, from outperform.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
