Some bad-news-is-good-news jobs data failed to light a fire under stocks Tuesday, with the main indexes making modest moves throughout the session. Still, retreating Treasury yields kept one of the three main indexes above water.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning said the number of job openings fell to 8.7 million in October from September's 9.4 million – a 28-month low. The healthcare, finance and real estate sectors saw the biggest drops in the number of available jobs, while technology saw the largest rise.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) comes ahead of several labor market updates this week, the most notable being Friday's nonfarm payrolls report. Following a much lower-than-anticipated reading in the October jobs data, Kiplinger economist David Payne says we can expect "fewer than 200,000 net new jobs from now on, because of the broader slowdown in the economy."
Apple gains $63 billion in market value on Foxconn news
In single-stock news, Apple (AAPL) rose 2.1% today, adding $63 billion in market cap and climbing back above the $3 trillion valuation mark for the first time since August. Boosting the mega-cap stock was news Apple's Taiwan-based supplier Foxconn said fourth-quarter revenue growth will likely be higher than previously anticipated thanks to strong demand for consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets.
In other Apple headlines, a recent report in The Wall Street Journal suggests the tech giant is considering a streaming bundle with Paramount Global (PARA, -2.8%). The buzz comes as various companies partner up with streaming companies to provide service bundles to consumers at a discount.
P&G falls on Gillette write-down, restructuring charges
While Apple was easily the best-performing Dow Jones stock today, Procter & Gamble (PG) was the worst. Shares of the consumer products giant slumped 3.5% after the company said in a regulatory filing that it will incur a roughly $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion loss due to restructuring in certain markets and a write-down in its Gillette business, which it bought in 2005.
As for the main indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.2% at 36,124) and the S&P 500 (-0.06% at 4,567) each ended the session with modest losses. The more rate-sensitive Nasdaq Composite, however, rose 0.3% to 14,229, as yields on the 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes fell to 4.583% and 4.176%, respectively.
