U.S. Market
Stocks were mostly lower today after yesterday’s rally.
Initial unemployment claims were up 1,000 to 291,000 last week. The less volatile four-week moving average rose by 2,250 to 304,750.
The Philly Fed index, which measures the strength of the Mid-Atlantic manufacturing sector, fell to 5.0 in March from 5.2 in the previous month. The reading was well below expectations.
At market close the Dow was down 0.7%, the S&P 500 was off 0.5% while the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.
Stocks on the Move
Shares of Guess? (GES) rallied over 16% today after fundamentals showed small areas of improvement in the fourth quarter. In particular, e-commerce sales grew 37%, the Marciano collection comped up double digits, and women’s handbags, outerwear, and footwear comped positively. Additionally, management expects store closures, an improved product offering, and a healthier inventory position to yield an improvement in operating margin in fiscal 2016, excluding the impact of foreign exchange.
