US markets are modestly lower after jobless figures disappointed.
December’s non-farm payrolls in the US rose 74,000 but this was well below the 185,000 or so the market had been expecting.
As in the UK, retailers are bombarding the market with Christmas trading updates. Clothing sellers Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch both got the thumbs up after raising full-year profits guidance on the back of a good end of year trading performance.
In contrast, retailer Sears revealed it will post a fourth quarter loss of somewhere between US$2.35 and US3.39 a share. Like-for-like sales are down 7.4% in the current fiscal quarter from a year ago.
Results from aluminium firm Alco also disappointed. Shares took a bashing as its earnings per share came in at four cents, well below the six cents the market had been expecting.
The Dow Jones is off 34 points (0.21%) at 16,410 and the S&P 500 has given back a couple of points (0.1%) at 1,836. The NASDAQ Composite is also down two points (0.1%), at 4,154.
In the UK, the US employment numbers have roughly lopped in half Footsie’s gain on the day. The top-share index is up 43 at 6,735.
Top of the Footsie tree are Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) and Persimmon (LON:PSN) – the former after chatter about a possible bid by Statoil and the latter after Wednesday’s trading statement.
Laggards include supermarkets Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) and bankers Lloyds (LON:LLOY), Barclays (LON:BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS).
A standout mover among the small-caps is pottery maker Churchill China (LON:CHH), which said its operating performance for 2013 will be “significantly ahead” of the previous year.
It will beat current market expectations thanks to a strong showing from its hospitality arm in November and December. Shares are up 12.5% at 450p.
Another riser is President Energy (LON:PPC), which hardens 2.2% after agreeing an option to farm into the highly prospective Hernandarias Block in the Chaco Region of Paraguay as operator.
To do so it will carry out a US$17mln work programme that should cover the shooting of “prospect specific seismic” and the drilling of a first well.
President believes the 18,507 sq km prospect contains a major new structural play similar to those seen on the adjacent Andean mountain fronts of Bolivia and Argentina.
Sound Oil (LON:SOU) shares are also up (+2%) as its first production operation beat expectations in 2013, the company revealed
The Rapagnano field, which is modest is size but provides valuable cash flows, yielded a total of 2.2mln cubic metres of gas, or 79mln cubic feet, in the seven months from start-up in May to the end of December, which is 15% more than Sound had budgeted for.
Production rates averaged 9,000 cubic metres per day, or 0.34mln cubic feet per day.
Sticking with oil, New Zealand focused Kea Petroleum (LON:KEA) said it had agreed a £1.2mln convertible loan and £5mln equity finance facility with financier Darwin Strategic.
Last month, Kea said it had signed a preliminary agreement with a company listed on the Australian stock exchange for its PEP 51153 licence.
The deal, which remains to be finalised, was for a staged farm-out of PEP 51153, which includes the Puka oil discovery and that will see Kea funded through an appraisal of Puka with one firm well and up to another three.
Premier African Minerals’ (LON:PREM) shares were 5.9% higher earlier on after its partner has completed its phase one exploration programme at Danakil in Ethiopia, with a resource estimate for the potash project expected by March.
The shares are now 12.9% in the red.