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Dow Jones: 16,204.83 (-1.6%)
NASDAQ: 4,363.14 (-5.4%)
S&P 500: 1,880.02 (-3.1%)
Gold: 1,173.60 (+5.2%)
Copper: 208.90 (+1.5%)
Crude Oil: 30.88 (-8.0%)
Consumers received more income but spent less in December, 2015. Personal Income (PI) and Disposable Personal Income (DPI) both grew 0.3% in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) declined marginally (less than 0.1%) while the personal saving rate increased to 5.5% in December from 5.3% in November.
Unemployment claims rose at the close of January signaling some weakness in the labor market. Initial claims rose 8,000 in the week of January 30 to 285,000 from 277,000 the previous week while continuing claims fell 18,000 to 2.255 million from 2.273 million the previous week. The continuing claims 4-week moving average increased 5,250 from the past week's average.
Crude Oil continues to be volatile as the market struggles to find a bottom. It fell 5.8% this week to close at $31.61 per barrel. Commercial crude oil inventories (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased 1.6% to 502.7 million barrels from 494.9 million the past week. The national average retail regular gasoline price fell 1.8% to $1.822 from $1.856 per gallon the preceding week.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) reported a 17.8% increase in revenue for Q4 2015. Net income rose 5.3% while diluted EPS increased 4% to $7.06 from $6.79 the same quarter last year. Advertising revenue was up 17%, Google websites revenue rose 20.1%, Network member's websites (Adsense etc.) revenue increased 6.8% and other revenues (Google Play, Nexus devices) climbed 24.4%.
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) recorded a 31.5% revenue decline and a 57.7% net income fall for Q4 2015. Diluted EPS fell 57.1% to $0.67 in Q4 2015 from $1.56 in Q4 2014. The revenue nose dive was caused by losses in the upstream (explorations and production) and chemical segments and insignificantly offset by gains in the downstream (refining, marketing and distribution), and corporate & financing segments.
Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD) posted a revenue increase of 16.3% for Q4 2015 and net income rise of 34.4%. Diluted earnings per share rose 45.9% to $3.18 in Q4 2015 from $2.18 in Q4 2014. Harvoni, Truvada, Complera/Eviplera, and Stribild sales were up 37%, 4.2%, 8.4%, and 24.7% respectively. The new HIV drug, Genvoya — approved in November, 2015 — contributed 0.5.% to overall revenue.
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) announced an 8.5% revenue rise and a 2.4% net income increase for Q4 2015. Diluted earnings per share climbed 6.7% to $0.79 from $0.74 the same quarter 2014. The number of customer relationships increased 2.5% to 27.701 million from 27.035 million YoY with significant increases in the number of internet and voice subscribers and a marginal decline in video subscribers.
Looking ahead to next week, the following companies will be releasing their earnings results.
