Image Source: Unsplash
 

Market indexes kept mostly flat for the trading session today, with the blue-chip Dow sliding into the red mid-day and staying there, while the small-cap Russell 2000 looked headed for a new record all-time closing high before petering out in the final trading minutes. The Dow shed -178 points, -0.37%, the S&P 500 was -6, -0.09%, the Nasdaq +31, +0.13% and the Russell +5, +0.20%.

Meanwhile, the 10-year bond yield has climbed to a three-month high today — +4.186% — on concerns that tomorrow’s 25 basis-point (bps) cut on interest rates will loosen the Fed’s control on tamping inflation in 2026. This is perhaps reading between the lines a bit, but with inflation metrics hovering closer to 3% than the Fed’s optimal 2% — with another pending cut to help shore up the lagging labor market — the reasoning stands.

Delayed JOLTS Numbers Jump in October
 

The Job Openings and Labor Market Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for October was finally released earlier today — a victim of the long government shutdown this fall. A headline of 7.67 million is much higher than the 7.2 million analysts had been expecting, and came off a big upward revision to 7.66 million for September.

We saw -218K fewer hires in the month, to 5.15 million. The Job Quits Rate came in at its lowest level since the heart of the Covid pandemic: +1.8%. This fits with the “no fire, no hire” labor market we’ve seen in other labor data, and helps explain the big discrepancies between weak monthly jobs figures and benign Weekly Jobless Claims.

A Tale of Two Highway Stops: Earnings for CASY, CBRL
 

Casey’s General Stores (CASY - Free Report) reported fiscal Q2 earnings after today’s close, beating solidly on the bottom line, with earnings of $5.53 per share beating the $4.92 expected, +14% year over year. Revenues came in slightly below estimates to $4.51 billion, on yearly comps up +3.3%. Shares are selling off -2.4% in late trading, following its +42% gains year to date.

Cracker Barrel (CBRL - Free Report), on the other hand, posted negative earnings of -$0.74 per share excluding one-time items; -$1.10 including them. Revenues of $797.2 million missed the $801.1 million in the Zacks consensus, shrinking from the $845.1 million reported a year ago. Revenue guidance for the full year was lowered, and shares are down another -10% in late trading.

More By This Author: