Jobless Claims Stay Range-Bound

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Company Name	Symbol	%Change
VIASAT INC	VSAT	19.35%
OLD SECOND B	OSBC	5.76%
GAMCO INVEST	GBL	4.61%
CORNING INC	GLW	4.47%
SYNCHRONOSS	SNCR	4.23%

Company Name

Symbol

%Change

19.35%

5.76%

4.61%

4.47%

4.23%

Macro View

by Mark Vickery

August 16, 2012 | Comments : 0 Recommended this article: (0)

WMT TGT SHLD FB DLTR CSCO

We're again chock-full of data this morning: Initial Jobless Claims are up, Housing Starts are down, Building Permits are up quite a bit, and earnings reports are mixed.

Initial Jobless Claims remain range-bound in the 360-370K area, up 200K this week to 366K from an upwardly revised 344K last week. Continuing Claims were more or less unchanged at 3.34 million. In other words, things aren't getting better, but they're not really getting any worse. What's a way to update the phrase "broken record"?

Housing Starts -- these days a closely-watched indicator of a potential rebound in the homebuilding industry -- were down 1.1% in July, although Building Permits -- an indicator of future Housing Starts -- were up a surprising 6.8% in July, far surpassing the 3.1% in June. Perhaps there is reason for hope the housing market will come back sooner than later, but this volatility seems to say the jury's still out.

In earnings news, Wal-Mart ( WMT - Analyst Report ) beat EPS estimates by a penny but missed on revenues; more importantly, the world's largest retailer gave lackluster guidance, which is in strong contrast to Target's ( TGT - Analyst Report ) impressive beat-and-raise yesterday. Elsewhere, Dollar Tree ( DLTR - Snapshot Report ) beat estimates soundly on strong year-over-year revenue numbers. And Sears Holdings ( SHLD - Analyst Report ) missed EPS expectations but citing improving profit margins.

Yesterday after the bell, Cisco Systems ( CSCO - Analyst Report ) reported decent numbers, beating on the bottom line, but made investors take notice when the company raised its dividend by 75%. Considering the tech giant only began offering dividends last year, its yield is now over 3%.

Today, Facebook's ( FB - Analyst Report ) share lockup expires, meaning holders of FB shares finally have an opportunity to sell off their holdings of the popular -- but poorly performing -- social media site. Facebook is down 3% in this morning's pre-market, but there are 2 bigger expiring lockups coming this fall, so it remains to be seen how many investors will rid themselves of FB shares right now.