Wall Street Greek: Pre-Market: Jobless Claims & Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM)

pre-market jobless claims Exxon Mobil XOM

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Pre-Market: Jobless Claims & Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM)

A slew of earnings reports and higher jobless claims threaten the market yet again today. Exxon Mobil missed analysts consensus significantly, though reported higher than expected revenues.

Jobless Claims

The weekly Initial Jobless Claims Report sits all alone on Thursday, as the only economic data point released. We noted in our weekly copy that forecasters had uncharacteristically strayed from the prior week's tally to go out on a limb with a consensus view for 585K new benefits filers in the measured period. In another amazing change for this data point, forecasters almost hit the bulls eye. New claims filers numbered 584K in the week ended July 25! The mark signified a 25K increase from the revised prior week tally. Still, the four-week moving average moderated by 8,250, to 559K, and the insured unemployment rate stuck at 4.7%.

Noteworthy State Data

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 11 were in Puerto Rico (7.3 percent), Michigan (7.2), Oregon (6.7), Pennsylvania (6.4), Nevada (6.2), Wisconsin (6.1), Connecticut (5.6), New Jersey (5.6), Arkansas (5.5), California (5.5), North Carolina (5.5), and South Carolina (5.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 18 were in California (+4,290), Michigan (+3,654), Florida (+3,291), Connecticut (+749), and Indiana (+526), while the largest decreases were in New York (-22,052), Wisconsin (-6,791), Missouri (-6,529), Pennsylvania (-6,420), and Ohio (-5,062).

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) EPS Report

Exxon Mobil is down about 2% in pre-market trading after missing analysts' consensus in its second quarter report. Revenues dropped 46% on significantly lower oil and natural gas spot market pricing, but also on a 3% production decline. However, Exxon's Q2 revenue of $74.457 billion exceeded analysts' consensus expectation for $71.29 billion, based on Thomson Reuters data. Still, excluding "special items," XOM earned $0.81 per share, which compared unfavorably with both the analysts' view for $1.02/share and with its prior year earnings of $2.22 per share.

Exxon said that both lower pricing and reduced demand for its production played against its quarterly operational results. The company also noted that it has kept with its heavy capital investment efforts, which seemingly weighed on the total expense line, but agrees with its long-term strategy. It also noted that share repurchases were ongoing.

Natural Gas Report

The EIA reports on Natural Gas inventory at 10:30 this morning. Last week's data showed Nat Gas levels increased by 66 Bcf in the week ended July 17.

Government Events

The FDA will review Schering-Plough's (NYSE: SGP) application for schizophrenia drug Saphris and decide on a Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astranzeneca (NYSE: BMY, AZN) diabetes treatment. The Fed reports on its balance sheet at 4:30 p.m.

Corporate Earnings Schedule

The earnings schedule includes news from Akeena Solar (Nasdaq: AKNS), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), AmeriSourceBergen (NYSE: ABC), Apache (NYSE: APA), Arch Chemicals (NYSE: ARJ), Asset Acceptance (Nasdaq: AACC), AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Automatic Data Processing (NYSE: ADP), Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY), Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC), Becton, Dickinson & Co. (NYSE: BDX), BioScrip (Nasdaq: BIOS), Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), CARBO Ceramics (NYSE: CRR), CIGNA (NYSE: CI), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), Dresser-Rand (NYSE: DRC), drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM), Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK), Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), Gentiva Health (Nasdaq: GTIV), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE: GT), International Paper (NYSE: IP), Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE), Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM), Kellogg (NYSE: K), Kennametal (NYSE: KMT), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), McAfee (NYSE: MFE), MetLife (NYSE: MET), Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW), Mylan (NYSE: MYL), Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL), Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL), NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM), NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX), Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH), PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI), Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC), Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL), Sony (NYSE: SNE), Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), Travelers (NYSE: TRV), Tyco Int'l (NYSE: TYC), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) and many more.