Live coverage has ended. The full story is below.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) opened lower on Friday, down 0.35%, as investors looked in vain for guidance on the economy from a federal government enduring its second month of shutdown.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data that should have told investors the state of the job market (and prospects for further interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve) were due out today, but for the second month in a row this data has gone missing. Minimal federal government activity during the shutdown means no BLS report will issue today. All investors have to go on, really, is economists’ forecast of what the data should have shown.
And those forecasts say that job losses should have been 60,000 this month, with an unemployment rate of 4.5%.
Earnings
What we do have today is earnings news. In robotics, iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT) beat earnings by 68 cents this morning, but still reported a loss for Q3 — $0.23 per share. Sales for the quarter were $145.8 million, less than the $150 million analysts expected, and iRobot stock opened down 12.5% today.
In entertainment news, Lionsgate Studios (Nasdaq: LION) missed earnings by three cents, reporting a $0.20 per share loss and revenue of just $475.1 million, far less than the $541 million analysts had forecast for the movie studio. Lionsgate stock is down more than 3%.
And in nuclear news, electric utility company Constellation Energy Group (Nasdaq: CEG | CEG Price Prediction), an S&P 500 component company, this morning missed earnings by a nickel. Q3 profit was $3.04 per share. On the plus side, Constellation reported $6.6 billion in revenue for the quarter, which was about $110 million more than forecast.
Constellation warned on earnings, however, saying full year profit will range from $9.05 to $9.45 per share. Taken at the midpoint, that’s worse than analysts were hoping for, and Constellation stock is also down more than 3%.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.