Market Wrap-Up

January 3, 2008

DOW 13,056.72 +12.76 (+0.10%) S&P 500 1,447.16 0.00 (0.00%) NASDQ 2,602.68 -6.95 (-0.27%) 10yr 3.901%

The market opened on a positive note after the ADP Employment report came in better than economist had expected. Economist had expected an increase in private employment of 33k. The actual figure came in at 40k for December.

The weekly jobless claim came in better than expected coming in at 336k. Factory orders also came in stronger than expected with a reading of a 1.5% increase for November. Traders saw these reports as positives for the economy, indicating that the sub-prime debacle has not filtered it way into the general economy yet.

Crude inventories for the week of December 28^th fell by 4056K barrels. Analysts expected inventories to decline by a smaller 2250K.

Walgreen (WAG) $35.06 -2.28 (-6.11%) and CVS Caremark (CVS) $36.77 -2.58 (6.56%) shares fell after both companies announced disappointing sales numbers. Walgreen reported same store sales grew 2.6% and CVS same store sales grew 1.8% the street wanted more. A weak cold and flu season appears to have impacted sales traffic. The drug retail sector was today’s worst performing group off a -6.3%.

General Motors (GM) $23.92 -0.49 (-2.01%) reported December auto sales dropped 5% and Ford (F) $6.45 -0.15 (-2.27%) reported a sales drop of 9%. Toyota’s (TM) $106.90 +0.44 (+0.41) sales dropped 1.7% but passed Ford for the number two spot for total US sales.

Today best performing sector was the fertilizer & agriculture chemicals group (+8.3%)

Tomorrow we will see the release of the following economic data.

Non-farm Payrolls
Unemployment Rate
ISM Services

Texas Industries will also be reporting their earnings