ADP Report: Wednesday's Headlines

(Updated with ADP employment report, productivity data.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are the top stock market headlines for the morning of Wednesday, September 2, 2009.

Wednesday's Early Headlines

• ADP Report Shows Another Drop in Employment. - Automatic Data Processing's (ADP Quote) employment report, released Wednesday morning, showed that the private sector shed 298,000 jobs in August from a revised drop of 360,000 in July. Economists had forecasted a 246,000 decline in August. By comparison, the Labor Department's report, due out on Friday, is expected to show that the U.S. economy lost 225,000 jobs last month.
• Productivity Rises in Second Quarter - The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the revised read on second-quarter productivity rose to 6.6% from the preliminary read of 6.4%, better than economists had predicted. The revised reading represents a dramatic improvement from the slim 0.3% increase in the first quarter. Unit labor costs, meanwhile, fell by a revised 5.9% in the second quarter.
• Commercial Loans to Drive Bank Failures: Bair. - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair told CNBC late Tuesday that commercial loans are likely to be the biggest drivers of future bank failures. During an interview, Bair said commercial loans are "going to be a bigger driver of bank failures towards the end of this year into next year." Bair added that residential mortgages were still where the credit distress was right now. Already, 84 banks have failed in 2009.
• MBA Pressuring Congress on Fannie, Freddie Overhaul. - The Wall Street Journal reports that the Mortgage Bankers Association will release a proposal Wednesday that calls for Congress to transform Fannie Mae (FNM Quote) and Freddie Mac (FRE Quote) into several smaller privately held companies that would issue mortgage securities carrying an explicit government guarantee.
• Wells Fargo Defends TARP Exit Plan. - Bloomberg reports that Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) CEO John Stumpf said in an interview that the bank will pay back bailout funds "shortly," but will not raise new equity to complete the task. Stumpf's comments come at a delicate time, as rumors about the overall health of financial firms are circulating in the market.
• BP Makes "Giant" Oil Find in Gulf of Mexico. - BP (BP Quote) said it made a "giant" oil discovery at a well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The Tiber well was drilled to a total depth of about 35,055 feet, making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry, according to BP. The oil company said the well found oil in multiple "lower tertiary" reservoirs.
• Sony Plans 3-D TVs by Late Next Year. - The Financial Times reports Sony (SNE Quote) plans to sell 3-D LCD televisions globally by the end of 2010. Sony CEO Howard Stringer is expected Wednesday tell an audience at a trade show in Berlin Wednesday the company plans not only to sell 3-D Bravia TV sets, but to make its Vaio laptop computers, PlayStation3 game consoles and Blu-ray disc players compatible with the technology, the report said.

Wednesday's Earnings Roundup

• Jos. A. Bank Clothiers (JOSB Quote) reported second-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share, coming in well ahead of the Thomson Reuters average estimate of 54 cents a share. Sales rose almost 10% from a year ago to $167.7 million, also better than consensus. The retailer said same-store sales rose 6.2% in the quarter.