Caution Reigns Ahead of Jobs Report

Summary of business headlines: New weekly jobless claims fell for third straight week ahead of November's monthly report Friday, Sirius XM Radio approves a $2 billion stock repurchase program, Apple shares bounce back after the worst one-day drop in four years, and Broadcom leads computer chip shares higher.

Published

6 months ago

Categories

Finance

Topics

United States

People

Julia Coronado

Places

United States of America

Companies

Apple Inc., Bnp Paribas S.A.

Transcript

PLEASE NOTE THIS REPORT CONTAINS 4:3 MATERIAL The number of Americans who filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week fell for the third straight week to 370,000. It's a level not seen since before superstorm Sandy. But the monthly jobs report, due out Friday, is expected to show only 93,000 new jobs were created last month. Economists blame the expected slowdown on labor disruptions caused by Sandy. Julia Coronado of BNP Paribas: SOUNDBITE: JULIA CORONADO, CHIEF ECONOMIST NORTH AMERICA, BNP PARIBAS (ENGLISH) SAYING: "We're expecting an uptick and part of this is going to be driven by Hurricane Sandy. So we're expecting about a 150-thousand job impact from the Hurricane. And that's going to be enough to tick the unemployment rate up, at least temporarily." Sirius XM Radio gained ground after the company's board approved a $2 billion stock repurchase program and declared a special dividend. Apple bounced back, erasing initial losses which briefly brought the market capitalization of the world's biggest public company below $500 billion. The gains come one day after Apple's worst drop in four years. Broadcom boosted other computer chip makers a day after it forecast fourth quarter revenue at the high end of its target range. But overall, U.S. stock market investors put off making any big bets before the Friday jobs report. European shares closed at their highest levels in 18 months.