U.S. Market,June 6th, 2013

Stocks were down at midday as economic data failed to meet expectations. Focus will also be on the Fed's Beige Book scheduled for release this afternoon.

 

Automatic Data Preprocessing ADP private-sector employment report for May revealed a 135,000 job increase during the month, lower than the forecast reading of a 170,000-job increase. The April number also was revised downward. ADP said the weaker readings are a result of governmental fiscal policies. The markets will closely be watching jobs numbers for the remainder of the week, specifically the U.S. payrolls report Friday. Separately, U.S. labor costs for the first quarter were revised significantly downward, while productivity also saw a downward revision.

 

U.S. factory orders also missed expectations of a 1.5% gain in April, rising by 1.0%. Although orders improved from a sharp drop in March, the transportation sector led much of the gain, and when excluding that sector, total orders decreased by 0.1%.

 

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management's non manufacturing purchasing managers' index  improved to 53.7 last month from April's tally of 53.1, and it slightly beat forecasts of 53.5. However, the sub indexes waffled, with the employment indicator declining by nearly two points.