Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/54502
10A Daily News – Friday, February 3, 2012 US stocks flat ahead of unemployment report Wall Street By JOSHUA FREED AP Business Writer Investors coasted on Thursday, leaving stocks unchanged while they looked ahead to Friday for a major jobs report. U.S. government bonds hardly moved, and nei- ther did European stocks. U.S. stocks rose slight- ly in the morning after the Labor Department said the four-week average of unemployment claims fell to 375,750, the lowest since June 2008 and enough to suggest a steadily improving job market. The more important numbers come Friday, when the government releases the number of jobs created in January and the unemployment rate. In December, the country added 200,000 jobs, and the rate was 8.5 percent. YEARBOOK This would probably be it: A Daily News Publication City Parks and Services Lassen Volcanic National Park North State's Wine Country Red Bluff Round-Up Victorian Charm The Dow Jones indus- If Red Bluff had a trial average traded in a narrow range all day, between a gain of 25 points and a loss of 40. It closed down 11.05 points at 12,705.41. In the 274 trading days since the beginning of 2011, the Dow has traded in a nar- rower range only 25 times. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.45, or 0.1 percent, to 1,325.54. The Nasdaq composite rose 11.41 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,859.68. Bond traders stayed on the sidelines, too. The price of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 6.2 cents for every $100 invested, and the yield inched down to 1.82 percent from 1.83 percent Wednesday. Red Bluff 2012 U.S. mining stocks rose after British mining company Xstrata PLC confirmed it is in merger discussions with com- modities trader Glencore International PLC. In the U.S., Newmont Mining Corp. rose 1.9 percent, Alcoa was up 2.2 percent, and iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. rose 0.3 percent. The deal is a signal to A Daily News Publication Advertising Space Reservation Deadline: Tuesday, February 7 at 5 PM City and County Information Recreation Guide Local places of interest City Map & Street Guide Schools Directory Church Guide Public Services Calendar of Events …and more! Glossy stock Magazine Format 10,000 distribution 7,000 as a special insert to the 3000 print for distribution to visitors, new and prospective residents through Chambers of Commerce, hotels and Information Centers D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY Peach Leaf Curl Blight 24/7 presence online version on www.redbluffdailynews.com for a full year, with links provided to Chamber of Commerce, RB City and County websites. Businesses: Make sure YOU are part of it! Advertising Representative Today! 527-2151 Call your Daily News Local Red Bluff Garden Center 527-0886 766 Antelope Blvd. (Next to the Fairground) and much more NOW OVER 300,000 PAGE VIEWS PER MONTH! D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY www.redbluffdailynews.com Now! Print Daily News subscribers enjoy unlimited FREE website access 24/7! Tues-Sat 9am-5pm • Closed Sun & Mon FIREPLACE PRODUCTS 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Great Weekend for Dormant Spraying Liqui-Cop Helps Control investors that mining companies are trading at low prices compared with the commodities they mine, said Nathan Rowad- er, director of investments at Forward Management in San Francisco. Health insurer Cigna dropped 3.4 percent after its earnings fell short of expectations as it absorbed higher corpo- rate and medical costs. Pfizer fell 0.8 percent after recalling birth-con- trol pills. Retailers were a patch- work of rising and falling stocks, reflecting their patchwork of January sales results. Costco and Target came in better than expected. Macy's and Dillard's fell short. Costco rose 2.8 percent, and Target rose 1.1 per- cent. Gap rose 10.7 percent after revenue at its high- end Banana Republic stores rose 6 percent. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. fell 13.8 percent to a one-year low after it said higher markdowns and cotton costs mean its adjusted fourth-quarter profit and revenue will be less than analysts had expected. Last year, investors were so worried about a financial disaster in Europe that U.S. compa- nies with strong earnings have been undervalued, said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Burns Advisory Group in Oklahoma City. Now, he said, stock prices are catching up. The S&P is up 5.4 per- cent this year, the Dow 4 percent. ''Right now the market is going up just on the absence of bad news, on the absence of that worst- case scenario materializ- ing,'' he said. Stocks in Europe closed nearly flat or up slightly. Britain's FTSE 100 index rose 0.1 per- cent. Germany's DAX was 0.6 percent higher, and the CAC-40 in France rose 0.3 percent. The euro was also sub- dued after recent gains, trading slightly lower at $1.315. news: In other corporate — Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., which makes Keurig cup coffee brewers, rose a hot 24 percent after it said first-quarter revenue more than doubled, mar- gins tripled, and net income rose more than 40-fold. — MasterCard rose 6.7 percent after adjusted profits beat Wall Street expectations. — Starwood Hotels & Resorts World Inc., which operates Sheraton and Westin hotels, fell 1.6 percent after it said its fourth-quarter profit dropped 51 percent because it set aside money for an unfavorable legal decision. Natural gas prices climbed more than 7 per- cent after the government said the nation's supplies shrank last week. Natural gas hit a 10-year low last month. Benchmark crude oil fell $1.25 to end at $96.36 per barrel in New York because of weak demand. COMPLETE AUTO REPAIR All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened 30K, 60K, 90K SERVICES AT LOWER PRICES Smog Check starting at $ (most cars and pick-ups) 2595 + cert. Pass or FREE retest 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. The North State's premier supplier of stoves STOVE JUNCTION The Over 25 years of experience