ADP Report: Tomorrow's Headliners
NEW YORK (
) --
Automatic Data Processing's
(ADP) - Get Report
latest employment report will be the highlight of Wednesday's session, as traders look to the data as a preview for the government's own jobs report.
The ADP report, due for release at 8:15 a.m. EST Wednesday, is expected to show that the private sector lost 30,000 jobs in January, which would be an improvement from the 84,000 job losses in December.
By comparison, economists polled by
Reuters
expect that the Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls report, due Friday at 8:30 a.m. EST, will show a gain of 13,000 jobs for January, compared with 85,000 jobs that were eliminated in December.
In other jobs-related news, the Challenger, Gray and Christmas job cuts survey for January will also be released Wednesday. Last month, the survey saw the fewest monthly job cuts since December 2007, the month the recession began. The firm's last report showed that companies announced 45,094 job cuts for December, the firm said, which was down 10% from the month before and 73% from December 2008.
Elsewhere on the economic docket, the Mortgage Bankers Association will release its weekly mortgage applications survey at 7 a.m. EST, followed at 10 a.m. EST by the Institute for Supply Management's services index, which should climb to 51 in January from 49.8 in December. Any reading over 50 on the index indicates expansion, rather than contraction.
Investors will also be focusing on the Energy Department's weekly inventory report, due at 10:30 a.m. EST, as oil prices hover above $75 a barrel. A
Bloomberg
poll of analysts was split over whether crude inventories rose or fell last week. On average, analysts are looking for a build of 400,000 barrels, the poll showed.
Wednesday's slate of quarterly earnings results is also busy, with
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Report
,
Time Warner
(TWX)
,
Comcast
(CMCSA) - Get Report
and
International Paper
(IP) - Get Report
among a handful of companies scheduled to open their books on the fourth quarter before the opening bell.
After the trading day ends, quarterly reports from
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Report
,
Visa
(V) - Get Report
,
Yum! Brands
(YUM) - Get Report
and
Broadcom
(BRCM)
are expected.
-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston
.
Follow Robert Holmes on
and become a fan of TheStreet.com on