Career News 24/7: STOCKS GO NOWHERE ON MORE DISAPPOINTING DATA: Here's What You Need To Know, January 31, 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

STOCKS GO NOWHERE ON MORE DISAPPOINTING DATA: Here's What You Need To Know, January 31, 2012

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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

U.S. economic data was nothing to cheer about.

First, the scoreboard:

Dow: 12,632.9, -20.8, -0.2%
S&P 500: 1,312.4, -0.6, -0.1%
NASDAQ: 2,813.8, +1.9, +0.1%

And now, the top stories:

All of the European Union states except for Britain and the Czech Republic signed a treaty to control spending in the eurozone. Greece also seems to be making some progress towards a debt swap deal with its private creditors. European stocks closed higher. Meanwhile, the euro fell back toward $1.30.
The November reading of the Case-Shiller home price index was disappointing. The 20-city composite price index fell 0.7 percent from October and 3.7 percent from a year ago. Economists were expecting declines of 0.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. Phoenix was the only one of the 20 cities that saw prices rise. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index Has A Major Deficiency That Almost No One Talks About >
The Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index fell to 60.2 in January, which was far short of the increase to 63.0 expected by economists.
Consumer confidence as measured by the Conference Board fell to 61.1 in January, missing economists' estimate of 68.0 by a wide margin. "Consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions turned more downbeat and is back to November 2011 levels," said the Conference Board's Lynn Franco. "Regarding the short-term outlook, consumers are more upbeat about employment, but less optimistic about business conditions and their income prospects."
ExxonMobil reported monster earnings of $9.4 billion or $1.97 per share. However, the was just short of the $1.98 expected by analysts. Total production fell to 4.53 million barrels per day.
On the brightside, UPS, a major economic bellwether said quarterly revenue grew 6 percent to $14.2 billion on a better-than-expected holiday season. EPS jumped to $1.28, beating estimates by $0.02. Our expectations are for mixed economic growth around the world, with modest improvement in the U.S. However, UPS projects another strong year of earnings,” said CEO Scott Davis.
Don't Miss: SocGen Identifies The 40 Most Important Dividend Stocks In The World >




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