(Boursier.com) — Wall Street is back in the green this Friday, following good US employment figures, and despite fears of recession in a context of rapid monetary tightening and high inflation. The S&P 500 recovered by 0.15% to 3,908 pts, the DJIA by 0.25% to 31,462 pts and the Nasdaq by 0.16% to 11,640 pts. Crude prices are hesitant, with a barrel of WTI crude up 1.3% on the Nymex at $103.8 and a Brent at $105.8, up 1.4%. An ounce of gold fell 0.2% to $1,736. The dollar index consolidates by 0.1% against a basket of currencies.
The US employment figures for the month of June 2022 reported this Friday are quite encouraging, but they also provide new arguments for the Fed to tighten its policy very quickly. Thus, the creation of non-agricultural jobs very clearly exceeded consensus expectations, at 372,000, whereas they were expected at 275,000. In line with expectations, the US unemployment rate for June was stable at 3.6%. Job creations in the private sector were 381,000, against 240,000 consensus. Manufacturing job creations amounted to 29,000 against 23,000 consensus. The average hourly wage increased as expected by 0.3% compared to the previous month and by 5.1% over one year.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised down by 68,000, from 436,000 to 368,000, and the change for May was revised down by 6,000, from 390,000 to 384,000. With these revisions, employment in April and May combined is 74,000 lower than previously reported figures.
Wholesale inventories in the United States for May 2022, in final reading, increased by 1.8% compared to the previous month, against 2% consensus and 2% for the preliminary estimate. Their rise was 2.2% in April.
The New York Stock Exchange closed sharply higher last night, the day after the publication of the Fed’s “minutes”, giving investors hope for the possibility of a less abrupt rise in interest rates in the face of the threat of a recession. The trend had also been supported by the prospect of stimulus measures in China. The technology sector stood out, and in particular the chip manufacturers, in the wake of the solid results of the South Korean group Samsung, like Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm.
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Spirit Airlines (+4%), the low-cost American airline, based in Florida, would have postponed the shareholder vote on the sale of the group to Frontier Group Holdings (+5%) for 2.4 billion dollars, in order to continue the parallel negotiations carried out with JetBlue Airways (steady). At least that’s what sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday evening. Spirit previously rejected five successive takeover offers from JetBlue, which is now offering $3.7 billion in cash. The shareholder vote on the Frontier deal was postponed three times. The new postponement runs until July 15. On Monday, the New York group JetBlue had therefore softened its offer to $33.5 per Spirit title in cash, $2 better than before. Frontier’s offer amounts to $24.3 per share in cash and shares.
You’re here (+4%). The group of Elon Musk, giant of the electric automobile, nevertheless sold 78,906 vehicles produced in China in June, which represents an absolute record over one month, according to figures revealed today by the China Passenger Car Association ( CPCA), local sector federation.
Twitter (-3%) fell, far from the initial price proposed of $54.2 per share for its acquisition. It must be said that the businessman Elon Musk, at the origin of this 44 billion dollar proposal, had already quickly backpedaled, first asking to know more about the extent of the phenomenon of robots and accounts. fake. The richest man in the world thus hinted that a revised downward offer would be highly probable. Now the operation is even in serious danger, according to several media reports. He could even give up, for lack of being able to really measure the proportion of ‘bots’ and fake accounts on the platform, if we are to believe the Washington Post. The WaPo (by Jeff Bezos) explains that the takeover of Twitter by Musk and his allies would therefore be “in danger”. Discussions with investors have been tempered in recent weeks, and the Musk clan would not be able to confirm Twitter’s claims about spam accounts, the proportion of which is considered minimal by the social media network…
At the same time, Twitter announced that it had laid off 30% of its recruiting team dedicated to talent acquisition, as the group remained under pressure from Musk’s offensive.
Western Petroleum (stable) remains in the spotlight this Friday on Wall Street, while Warren Buffett’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway, has just once again strengthened its stake in the American oil group. Berkshire continued to shop, acquiring an additional 12 million shares for $698 million. The participation of the Omaha firm in the capital of Occidental Petroleum has now reached 18.7%. Buffett’s firm owns more than 175 million Occidental shares worth nearly $11 billion. The title Occidental Petroleum has almost doubled this year on Wall Street. Berkshire also holds $10 billion in preferred securities and has options to acquire 83.9 million other common securities for $5 billion.
GameStop last night jumped 15% on Wall Street, boosted by the announcement of a “split” four against one. Concretely, the shareholders on the registers at the close of the meeting of July 18, will receive three additional securities for each share held, in the form of a stock dividend. This decision of the board of directors will make it possible to increase the liquidity of the stock. The stock dividend will be distributed after the July 21 close. The title will list “adjusted for the split” on July 22. The group had mentioned in March the possibility of this division of the title, without specifying the terms. This is the second split in GameStop history, following a halving in March 2007.
However, the title has fallen by 4% today, GameStop having announced significant changes in the workforce. The group is thus separating from its financial director and will proceed with layoffs, while investing in store jobs. This is at least what reveals an internal message and a source close to the file quoted by a journalist from Yahoo!. “Change will be a constant as we scale our business and launch new products through our blockchain group,” Gamestop CEO Matt Furlong wrote in an internal memo. “After investing heavily in people, technology, inventory and supply chain infrastructure over the past 18 months, our goal is to achieve sustainable profitability. This means eliminating excess costs and operating with an intense owner mentality”. According to a Yahoo! source, the extent of the workforce cuts is unclear.
GameStop also announced that its chief financial officer, Mike Recupero, who had held the position for over a year, was leaving the company and would be replaced by chief accounting officer Diana Jajeh.
Levi Strauss (+2%) exceeded expectations for the second fiscal quarter. Over the period, adjusted earnings per share represented 29 cents, against 23 cents consensus and 23 cents a year earlier. Revenue meanwhile totaled $1.47 billion, beating expectations by 2% from $1.28 billion a year earlier. The clothing retailer benefited in particular from strong Internet sales. Consolidated net income was $50 million and 12 cents per share. The results include charges of $60 million related to the war in Ukraine. Revenues therefore improved by 15%. The group confirms its annual revenue and earnings per share guidance and increases its quarterly dividend by 20%.