Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
U.S. stock investors welcome the month of June today, though prospects for profits remain highly uncertain.
The final numbers for May were anything but bullish: the Dow suffered its biggest one-month drop since May of 2010, while the Nasdaq saw its biggest point drop since October of 2008.
The May employment report is the focus of Wall Street this morning, with the 8:30am ET release expected to show non-farm payroll growth of 155,000 and an unchanged unemployment rate of 8.1 percent. April had seen an unexpectedly low 115,000 nonfarm jobs created, though investors will be watching carefully for any revisions.
The jobs report has some competition for attention this morning, with April personal income and spending figures out at the same time. Income is seen rising 0.3 percent for April following a 0.4 percent increase in March, while consumer spending is expected to match March’s 0.3 percent advance.
At 10am ET, the Institute For Supply Management will issue its May manufacturing index, expected to drop to 53.9 from the April reading of 54.8. The government is also out with April construction spending numbers at the same time, with consensus forecasts calling for a 0.3 percent increase following a 0.1 percent rise in March.
We’ll also get U.S. sales figures from major automakers throughout the morning. Japanese automakers are likely to post outsized increases, because of year-ago manufacturing slowdowns related to the March 2011 earthquake.
Retailer Charming Shoppes (CHRS) is one of only a handful of companies scheduled to issue quarterly earnings this morning, with no reports scheduled after the closing bell this afternoon.
Wal-Mart (WMT) will be a stock to watch in the days ahead, as the retail giant holds its annual meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Despite the controversy over the alleged bribery scandal in Mexico, the stock has been trading at its highest levels since 2000 in recent days.
Sara Lee (SLE) is seeing some buying interest, after its board approved both the spinoff of its international coffee and tea business and a 1-for-5 reverse stock split. After the spinoff, shareholders in the new “CoffeeCo” will get a $3/share special dividend.
We’ll watch shares of Oracle (ORCL) after a judge dismissed copyright claims against Google (GOOG) over parts of Oracle’s Java programming language. Oracle has been seeking about $1 billion in damages, but that number will be sharply limited by the ruling.
Shares of casino operators like Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) will be on the watch list after Macau casinos reported gaming revenue growth of 7.3 percent in May, the slowest expansion since July 2009.
Nokia (NOK) is denying claims by Google (GOOG) that it’s colluding with Microsoft (MSFT) to use their patents to hurt smartphone industry rivals. Google has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission.
BP (BP) is considering a sale of its stake in TNK-BP, Russia’s third largest oil producer. A sale of BP’s 50 percent stake in the venture could raise around $30 billion.
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