STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's What You Need To Know
First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 16.569.44, -0.5, (0%)
- S&P 500: 1,934.16, -2.8, (-0.1%)
- Nasdaq: 4,389.00, -12.3, (0.3%)
And now, the top stories on Tuesday:
1. NFIB's small business optimism survey for July showed that the number of respondents saying that there are "few or no qualified applicants" for jobs continues to rise, coming at 42% of respondents. Overall, the index rose 0.7 points to 95.7 in July from June's reading.
2. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, or JOLTS report, from the BLS showed that job openings grew again in June, to 4.67 million from 4.635 million May. This is slightly better than the 4.6 million openings that were expected by economists. The June report showed that the hires rate was up 0.1% to 3.5% in June, while the separations rate was unchanged at 3.3%. The quits rate was unchanged at 1.8% in June.
3. The Treasury Department released its latest budget statement for July, showing that the deficit narrowed to $94.6 billion in July, down from $97.5 billion in the same month last year. This deficit was also narrower than the $96 billion expected by economists. Year-to-date, the deficit is at $460.5 billion, down from the $680.2 billion at the same point last year.
4. Shares of Intercept Pharmaceuticals gained more than 20% after the company on Monday afternoon announced an update on its liver disease treatment. The stock, which gained more than 55% in after hours trade on Monday, has had a volatile year, nearly quadrupling in one day in January, and including Tuesday's gains was up more than 320% year-to-date.
5. Revel Casino, the most expensive hotel and casino in Atlantic City history, said it would shut its doors on September 10 after no qualified bidders emerged to bail out the project.
6.Israeli biotech company Vascular Biogenics, which made its debut on the Nasdaq on August 1, said on August 8 that it was no longer public. In a statement, the company said its underwriters, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, terminate the offering "due to an unexpected situation in which a substantial existing U.S. shareholder did not fund payment for shares it previously agreed to purchase in the offering."
7. Last week, much of the chatter around the market surrounded the massive outflow from high-yield mutual funds. Goldman Sachs' Charles Himmelberg put this move into some more context in a research note to clients, calling it a "six-sigma" event, or an event that has the same likelihood of flipping a coin 29 times in a row and getting heads each time.
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