We're off to the races in the final trading day of May as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) looks to post only its sixth trading day in positive territory for the month. This morning investors are digesting disappointing employment numbers and higher-than-expected initial jobless claims. Numbers from ADP showed the private sector adding only 133,000 jobs in May versus expectations of 150,000. Jobless claims jumped by 13,000 to 383,000 despite anticipation for no change. While positive most of the morning, futures declined in response to the data and in early trading the blue chip index was down slightly.
In Dow-related news, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is trading lower this morning following the earnings report from mining equipment maker Joy Global (NYSE: JOY). While Joy posted results above analyst expectations, shares were down 8% in recent trading after the company lowered annual guidance due to eroding trends in Europe and China. Fellow Dow component Hewlett-Packard begins the jury selection process for a breach-of-contract trial with Oracle over the latter's decision to stop supporting software for certain HP servers. The relationship between the longtime partners has become tenuous following Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a move that shifted the enterprise software giant onto HP's hardware turf.
Also reporting earnings this morning was networking company Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN). Shares of Ciena were trading about 7% higher this morning after beating analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings. The company posted encouraging 14% revenue growth following last quarter's 4% decline. The past year has been a tough one for the telecom equipment industry, with Ciena down 55% and competitor Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) down over 70% in the past twelve months. Despite serving a key need driven by "the next trillion-dollar revolution" in mobile, these companies have suffered from serving a highly concentrated telecom-carrier customer base which has led to intense competition, pricing pressures, and shrinking margins over the years. Luckily there's a better way to invest in mobile, and in this special free report our analysts detail a hidden mobile component player poised to benefit as it finds its wares in more and more devices over the years. Click here to grab your copy today.
