Career News 24/7: STOCKS CLIMB, MICROSOFT TANKS: Here's What You Need To Know, September 3, 2013

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Investors came back from their long weekends to bid stocks slightly higher.

First, the scoreboard:

And now, the top stories:

A slew of international PMI reports showed that the developed markets continued to gain momentum through August with the eurozone continuing its climb out of its recession. Fears of a Chinese slowdown receded as the countries PMI numbers gained. However, the rest of the emerging markets lagged due to a variety of country specific problems.
U.S. PMI unexpectedly fell to 53.1 in August. Economists were looking for a reading of 54.0. Still, any reading above 50 indicates expansion.
The U.S. ISM manufacturing index jumped to 55.7 in August from 55.4 in July. This was the highest reading since June 2011. "Historically, ISM production has been highly correlated with the quarterly annualized change in real GDP growth—it is nearly 70%," said Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna. "The jump in Q3 production (from an average of 51.8 in Q2) points to both strengthening domestic and external demand."
According to CoreLogic, U.S. home prices climbed by 12.4% in July. "The latest CoreLogic house price reading added to the evidence that the pace of price gains is easing slightly," said Capital Economics' Paul Diggle. "It’s possible that annual price growth will drop into the single- digit range by the end of the year."
Shares of Microsoft fell by 4.5%. Late Monday evening, Microsoft announced it would buy Nokia's smartphone businesss for $7 billion.
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