Friday, August 05, 2011

Urgent: Employment report better than forecast, but GCI drops 5%, after hitting new 52-week low

[Updated with final closing stock prices.] The U.S. added 117,000 jobs outside the farm sector in July and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.1%, the government reported this morning, in a better-than-expected report that might provide temporary calm to jittery financial markets.

Wall Street, which sold off heavily yesterday, was watching the report closely for clues about the economy's direction.

Gannett's stock closed today at $10.80 a share, down 52 cents, or 4.6% -- even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied from steep lows, finishing the day up 0.5%. The S&P 500 index, a broader measure of overall market activity, closed the day barely changed.

Earlier in the day, GCI traded as low as $10.40 a share, setting another new 52-week low. Year to date, the company's shares are now down 28%, according to Google Finance. That's a far worse performance than the Dow and the S&P.

Still, GCI's decline isn't as bad as two other newspaper publishers I follow closely: Lee Enterprises (down 67%) and McClatchy (down 61%).

1 comment:

  1. Deal chicken seen at local KFC. Said Deal Chicken, "Gannett sucks! I will try my luck with the Colonel!"

    ReplyDelete

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