Market Preview: Gauging the Jobs Report

Capital Economics is at the lower end with its model projecting the addition of just 100,000 jobs in September, a figure suggesting the month was basically status quo with August.

The political implications of Friday's report are also significant for investors as a blowout better than expected number would be a big positive for President Barack Obama and go a long way toward slowing the momentum that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has built up with his strong performance in Wednesday night's debate.

That could knock the big banks -- Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan (JPM) et al -- right back down after they enjoyed a strong Romney-inspired rally on Thursday.

The September payrolls number is slated to hit the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET, and it could very well determine whether the major U.S. equity averages are able to hold this week's smart gains through the weekend.

As for Friday's other scheduled news, Constellation Brands (STZ) is the only quarterly report of note. The Victor, N.Y.-based alcohol seller is set to disclose its fiscal second-quarter results and the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for earnings of 54 cents a share in the August-ended period on revenue of $710.1 million.

There's also the consumer credit data for August due at 3 p.m. ET with economists expecting an expansion of $5 billion vs. last month's $3.3 billion contraction, according to Briefing.com.

And finally, Zynga (ZNGA) will be a big mover to the downside on Friday after the social gaming company forecast a loss for the third quarter and lowered its full-year outlook. The stock was last quoted at $2.27, down 19.4%, on extended volume of 4.6 million.

Calling the quarter "challenging," Zynga said it expects a loss of 12 to 14 cents a share for the September-ended quarter with its non-GAAP per share performance seen as either breakeven or a loss of a penny per share. Revenue is projected in a range of $300 million to $305 million. Wall Street's current consensus view is for a breakeven performance.

For the year, the company dropped its expectations to bookings of $1.085 billion to $1.100 billion from a prior view of $1.150 billion to $1.225 billion. It now sees adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $147 million to $165 million vs. a previous projection of $180 million to $250 million.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3 Next › Last »