Stocks slides as investors await the jobs report on Friday. Constellation Brand and ConAgra foods beat expecations.

US stocks were sliding on Thursday as traders are waiting for the jobs report for September. At 15:00 the Dow Jones was down 0.5% (146 points), while Nasdaq was down 0.1% and S&P 500 0.4% (investing.com).

Jobless claims gave a peak of things to come, the labour market remains strong but the number of people filing new unemployment claims rose more than expected last week. Reports showed that weekly jobless claims increased by 29,000 to 219,000, continuing claims rose by 15,000 to 1.361 million and announced job cuts jumped 46% to 28,989 in September (reuters.com).  

Constellation Brands exceeded expectations for its Q2 earning after its report this morning. The alcoholic beverage maker is one of America’s biggest beer supplier, and its been posting positive earnings in the last four quarters. Constellation reported earnings of $3.17 per share on $2.66 billion revenue (investors.com). If we exclude the beer makers losses from its Canopy Growth Investments, comparable EPS would be $3.33 per share for the quarter. For the fiscal year 2023, Constellation Brands estimates EPS to rang between $11.20 and $11.60 per share. With operating cash flow to range from $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion (investors.com).

Additionally, ConAgra Foods reported Q1 earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The company announced earnings per share of $0.57 on revenue of $2.9 billion. ConAgra shares are down 1% from the beginning of the year and currently trading at $33.80, down from 52 week high (investing.com).