U.S. stock market indexes traded lower in premarket trading Friday after the September payroll report was short of expectations. Major indexes have been rallying and hitting records highs this week, but today it seems the trend will reverse. Further, the U.S. workforce declined by 33,000 jobs in September due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma affecting the labor market.
Costco Wholesale Corp.'s (COST, Financial) stock declined almost 6% Friday on the back of the company reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 after the market closed on Thursday. The company posted EPS of $2.08 and revenue of $42.3 billion, beating expectations.
Costco also managed to report comparable sales growth of 6.1%, with e-commerce comps coming in at 21%. By segment, U.S. comparable sales grew 6.5%, Canada comparable sales gained 4.9% and international comparable sales increased 5.6%. Gross margins declined 15 basis points, however, which sent the stock lower.Ă‚
Gainers
- Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI, Financial)
- United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL, Financial)
- Align Technology Inc. (ALGN)
- General Motors Co. ”‹(GM, Financial)
- Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV, Financial)
- American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL, Financial)
- Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY)
Losers
- Albemarle Corp. (ALB, Financial)
- Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM)
- Hess Corp. (HES, Financial)
- Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK)
- Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX, Financial)
- Target Corp. ”‹(TGT)
- Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN, Financial)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded mostly lower. The FTSE 100 gained 0.20%, while France's CAC 40 declined 0.36%, the IBEX 35 lost 0.29% and Germany’s DAX fell 0.09%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed at 20,690.71 with a 0.30% increase. India’s BSE Sensex was up 0.70%, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.28% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index inched up 0.28%.Â
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
