The Standard & Poor’s 500 was down more than 1.4% to under 1,335 in early trading thanks to a disappointing jobs report out Friday. The unemployment rate in the United States is at 9.2%, while economists had projected it falling to 9.0%. Falling instead were the major indexes.
Down by more than 6.2%, a drop of more than $3.26 to about $49.10, was Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A). Agilent is trading almost 16% above its 200-day moving average, but today’s loss has taken it below its 20- and 50-day moving averages. Agilent is up almost 18% year-to-date.
Also down by more than 5.2%, about 80 cents, was Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) to under $14.35, as the poor jobs data hammered the online search engine. Monster Worldwide is trading below its 50- and 200-day moving averages. Better-than-expected numbers from two jobs reports yesterday had Monster up 2.79%.
Also up yesterday by more than 2% but down early today is employment service company Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI). Down by more than $1 to under $26.75, Robert Haft is trading below its 50- and 200-day moving averages. The jump yesterday has it above its 20-day moving average.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) was up almost 0.9%, a gain of more than 35 cents, to over $42. The stock is fighting back against two recent analyst downgrades but got the bump it needed this morning from a positive mention on CNN Bullhorn. Dr Pepper Snapple is trading above its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages. At over 60, the relative strength index is close to the 70 ceiling for a stock to be viewed as overbought.
Up more than 0.4% was AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE: AN), gaining about 15 cents to move over $39.40. AutoNation is up almost 40% for the year as used car sales are robust, higher in June by 3% for the company. During the past five trading days, AutoNation has closed higher for each session and is up over 7.6% for the period. Its relative strength index is 75.82.
Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) was up almost 0.5% to about $30.60, a gain of almost 15 cents. The farms products and consumer goods company is trading above its 20-day moving average but beneath the 50- and 200-day averages. It was down almost 1% on both Wednesday and Thursday of this week. For the last five trading days, Archer Daniels is up almost 1.45%.
As of this writing, Johnathan Yates did not own any of the aforementioned stocks.
