Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Weekly Jobless Claims Exceed Expectations

Read MoreHide Full Article

Ahead of today’s open, we see fresh Weekly Jobless Claims data. It turns out to be the last employment data of what we had anticipated to be a complete “Jobs Week,” but non-farm payrolls from the U.S. government have once again been delayed until Wednesday of next week (Feb. 11th).

Initial Jobless Claims reached their highest level of 2026 so far: +231K, well up from an expected +212K and the unrevised +209K the prior week. It’s actually the highest weekly print since early December, which is basically on the other side of holiday employment seasonality. In any case, we’ve just passed through the longest stretch of very favorable new unemployment claims in two years. We’ll reserve judgment whether we’ll return there soon.

Continuing Claims also increased off near-term lows: 1.844 million is up from the downwardly revised 1.819 million the previous week, which was the slimmest amount of longer-term jobless claims since May of ’24. This is still a favorable level for continuing jobless claims, however; we’d spent much of the past six months between 1.93 and 1.97 million.

Cavalcade of Earnings Reports This Morning: BMY, COP, RL & More

We have a large numbers of companies reporting quarterly earnings — by volume, the busiest day of Q4 earnings season to date so far. So let’s do a quick run-down of the biggest moves ahead of the opening bell:

Big Pharma staple Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMY - Free Report) posted earnings of $1.26 per share, above the Zacks consensus for $1.15, which amounts to a +9.57% earnings beat. Shares are up +1.7% on the news, adding to the stock’s +6.8% gains year to date. 

Integrated Oil “supermajor” ConocoPhillips (COP - Free Report) , on the other hand, missed earnings estimates this morning by 6 cents, reporting $1.02 per share for an earnings miss of -5.6%. Shares are down -3.3% upon this release, taking a bite out of the company’s significant +14.9% gains from the start of the year.

Apparel giant Ralph Lauren (RL - Free Report) beat expectations in its Q4 earnings report this morning, posting $6.22 per share versus $5.80 for a +7.2% positive surprise, although shares are sliding -6.5% in early trading as annualized revenue growth has begun to slip below its five-year average.

Designer accessories major Tapestry (TPR - Free Report) , formerly Coach Inc., generated a strong earnings beat this morning, with $2.69 per share well above the $2.20 in the Zacks consensus in its fiscal Q2. Shares are up +5.9% at this hour of early trading, adding to the company’s +1.7% gains from the start of the year. 

Other notable earnings beats this morning came from Hershey’s (HSY - Free Report) , +21.28%, and steel giant ArcelorMittal (MT - Free Report) , +53.57%. The biggest beat of the morning, however, came from MasterCraft Boat (MCFT - Free Report) , which reported earnings +81.25% ahead of consensus — although revenues came in below estimates, so the stock is down -1.2%. ArcelorMittal is flat this morning and Hershey’s is +4.2%.

Published in