U.S. stocks opened higher this morning on mixed economic news. The S&P 500 was up 20 points to 1,936, the Dow Jones Industrial Index jumped 173 points to 16,260 and the Nasdaq gained 45 points to 4,203.
The ADP Employment Report was lighter than expected with an addition of 190,000 private payroll jobs versus the expected 201,000. July was revised down to 177,000 from 185,000. The energy group continues to cut jobs at a rate of 10,000 a month, while service-providing jobs increased slightly. Productivity jumped 3.3 percent, far higher than the estimated 1.3 percent.
While the U.S. rebounded, the Chinese markets ended mostly lower as it is now closed for the rest of the week as the country celebrates its World War II victory over Japan. The celebration is seen as a diversion from the country’s recent financial crisis. The Chinese markets definitely made an effort to end in the green ahead of the holiday with supportive efforts by Chinese brokerages that reportedly provided funds for market intervention purposes. However, it wasn’t enough and they still closed to the downside.
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The efforts did not go unnoticed by European traders. European indices are trading mostly higher, but have trimmed some of the gains from the opening.
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In the U.S., accessories brand Vera Bradley is jumping over 20 percent to $12.50 in early trading after beating its earnings forecast, but also reporting a 25 percent drop in profits. Vera delivered net income of $5.7 million, or 15 cents a share, which was much lower than last year’s $7.9 million, or 19 cents a share. Analysts had much lower expectations and only expected 10 cents a share in earnings. Revenue came in at $120.7 million, which topped the consensus forecast from FactSet of $115 million. Vera Bradley stock is down almost 50 percent for the past year.
G-III is also trading higher by 4 percent to $69.86 after the company reported that its earnings beat expectations and guided higher for the rest of the year. G-III delivered net income of $12.5 million versus last year’s $6.2 million. The earnings per share were 27 cents, while the estimates from Factset consensus called for 20 cents. Sales came in at $474 million, over the expectations of $470 million. G-III raised guidance for the full fiscal year to net income in the range of $129 million to $134 million. This is up from the previous guidance of $123 million to $128 million. Growth was driven by increases in the wholesale segment and comparable store sales at G.H. Bass.