Finance

Morning Market Roundup: Jobless Claims Drop 35K, Govt & Healthcare Fraud, Exxon Profit Boost

Here’s what’s important in the business world this morning:

Jobless Claims: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 last week, a figure that may have been distorted by seasonal factors.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications fell to a seasonally adjusted 353,000. That’s down from a revised 388,000 the previous week and the biggest drop since February 2010.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, declined 8,750 to 367,250. That’s the lowest level since the end of March.

Applications surged two weeks ago, reversing a big drop the previous week. But economists caution that the government struggles every July to account for temporary summer shutdowns in the auto industry. The adjustments have been unusually difficult this year because some automakers skipped their shutdowns in the face of stronger sales, resulting in fewer temporary layoffs.

Healthcare Fraud: The government is stepping up efforts to tackle health care fraud by scrutinizing claims data from insurers and federal programs in hopes of weeding out bogus billing.

Details of the initiative were to be announced Thursday at the White House by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Attorney General Eric Holder, and insurance executives.

The analysis of data from Medicare, Medicaid and private health plans will look for suspicious patterns and other evidence that might indicate fraud, White House officials said. A “trusted third party” would comb through the data and turn questionable billing over to insurers or federal investigators.

Among organizations expected to join the FBI in in the anti-fraud partnership are America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; both played a major role in the health care debate.

Officials said those who submit fraudulent claims often do so for both government programs and private insurance plans. Separately, such claims might not raise suspicions, but taken together they could raise a red flag, such as when a doctor bills for more than 24 hours in a day.

Exxon: Exxon Mobil said Thursday that net income rose 49 percent in the second quarter as it made $7.5 billion from selling company assets.

Those sales masked an otherwise tough quarter for America’s largest oil company. Exxon produced less oil and natural gas from April to June, and it sold both at lower prices. Excluding asset sales, company profit fell by 21.5 percent to $8.4 billion. That‘s Exxon’s smallest profit since the third quarter of 2010.

Shares fell 84 cents, or 1 percent, to $84.40 in premarket trading.

Quarterly revenue rose 1.5 percent to $127.4 billion.

U.S. Futures: U.S. stock futures jumped sharply Thursday after the president of the European Central Bank vowed to preserve the continent’s monetary union.

The euro has tumbled against the dollar and investors have fled stocks with the debt crisis in Europe threatening to drag more nations there into recession. European companies have been hit particularly hard and their shares in the U.S. have taken a beating this week.

However, after comments from ECB President Mario Draghi, Dow Jones industrial futures rose 127 points to 12,764 and the broader S&P futures added 16.4 points at 1,351.50. Nasdaq futures tacked on 34.5 points at 2,578 despite more disappointing news from the technology sector.

Dow Jones futures, which had been down 40 points, reversed course almost immediately, as did other futures markets.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments (9)

  • PurrrpleMtnMajesty
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 1:28pm

    The closer to the election, the more these numbers will be favorable…just watch.
    No longer counting those who quit looking, no longer counting those forced to retire,
    no longer counting on those looking for part time work to supplement their meager income
    or those who have settled for part time work …
    I don’t believe Americans would know the truth if it bit them in the A_S.
    God HELP America. Today 1 out of 5 Americans claim they don’t believe in God.
    This doesn’t include those who believe He is the “universe”, “nature”, the “planet”,
    a tree toad, a general “good” force, etc.
    What, just what is there to fall back on? Work record? Nope, Industry (where a variety of skill levels are needed even if not in your field) ? Nope There is a *reason* that for the past decade or two, people who were a bright as a bag of sand wanted gov’t jobs and why today, people still do.
    Pay is better, chance of keeping job is better and if you don’t do your job or have unlimited absences, no problem. The Post Office is a perfect example. Used to be dedicated workers, great benefits, etc…now they can barely survive and service…well, if that’s the direction the whole country is going,
    I don’t want to be here in 10 yrs.

    Report Post »  
  • rickc34
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 12:41pm

    The U.S.A is in trouble and Obama (Nero) just plays his fiddle . Obama attacks the rich but lives like a king himself using the tax payers dollars to play golf and go on vacations all over the world except Israel which he hates and will not visit because of his religion. Unemployment and welfare , what will the people do when the government stops their checks and food stamps, the will revolt and Obama will use the national guard and army to stop the revolt. Look at Europe and the middle east, this is our future with Obama at the helm.

    Report Post »  
    • PurrrpleMtnMajesty
      Posted on July 26, 2012 at 1:30pm

      PERFECT analogy….and just like Nero, he blames it on the Christians (conservatives)
      That certainly didn‘t end well for the Christians then and it won’t for people who uphold family values NOW.-

      Report Post »  
  • T-2
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 12:26pm

    must be nice to “revise” the negative numbers.

    Report Post »  
  • historyguy48
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 10:32am

    Comrades just more of the same BS! Right now the euro should fail sometime in Sept or early Oct, as planned. Watch what happens to Italy shortly because that will probably be the key. If some miracle allows Italy to survive, a panic will set in at the IMF because that will upset their plan and could cause years of work to come undone!

    Report Post » historyguy48  
  • Popp40
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 9:59am

    And the jobless numbers will be revised upwards (like they are every week) to the real numbers in a couple of weeks and MSM will not report on it. Sorry but these jobless numbers are a joke, sad thing is there are still people out there that don’t know the truth.

    Report Post »  
    • Holger Danske
      Posted on July 26, 2012 at 10:24am

      You left out “unexpectedly”. The revision will be unexpected once again…

      Report Post »  
  • Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
    Posted on July 26, 2012 at 9:57am

    LOL, how many times do people fall for the Euro-lie? No really, THIS TIME we got it. The EU will stay together and everything is going to be fine. Investor: “Really? Wow, okay I better get in on this.” Two weeks later EU: “Yeah, we need more money or we are screwed.” Investor: “I’m getting the heck out of this.” Two weeks later, EU: “THIS TIME we got it…..”

    Report Post » Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love