Super Bowl sponsors of yesterday and how they have fared. Also what advertisers we will see on Super Bowl Sunday.
5 Super Bowl Stocks to Watch-From Breakout
Over 100 million viewers in nearly half of the households in America will sit down to watch a football game this weekend. In terms of national participation and a dedication to old fashioned gluttony,
Super Bowl Sunday is rivaled only by Thanksgiving. The difference of course is that there's no moral obligation to watch the big game with relatives.
What makes the Super Bowl must-see television isn't only the football. America tunes in because the Super Bowl is the one televised event of the year in which the commercials are part of the entertainment.
That being the case, networks are able to charge top dollar for ad space during the game. The average for this year is about $3.5 million per 30-second spot with the exact price depending on the portion of the game during which the ad will run.
"Why on God's earth would you spend $3.5 million for 30 seconds?" asks Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank, in the attached clip.
With so much on the line, companies spending Hollywood movie-sized budgets are on a quest to produce a spot that rises above the others to make an indelible impression not only on the viewing public, but also on their investor base. They're telling a story about the company; be it turnaround plan, a new service, or new product launch. Though often overlooked, consumers and investors can learn a lot about a company based on a Super Bowl ad.
The gold standard in this regard remains Apple's iconic "1984" ad heralding the arrival of the Mac.
The spot aired exactly one time --January 22nd, 1984 during the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl. I have no idea who was playing in that game but I'm not the only one who can tell you precisely where I was when I saw the ad.
It's a question sure to be shouted at Best Buy's (BBY) next shareholders' meeting. The Minnesota-based electronics retailer has had a horrendous run as a company and a stock, capped off by a dismal Christmas season during which the company literally failed to deliver. BBY failed to ship goods purchased on BestBuy.com during Black Friday.
Last year, they put Ozzy Ozbourne and Justin Bieber in a largely incomprehensible spot that remains to this day the one unmitigated flop of Bieber's career. This year, the company is eschewing celebrities and featuring largely unknown inventors, highlighting the little innovations improving your life in incremental ways. Given what's at stake for Best Buy and the number of more pressing issues it needs to address to even exist a year from now, Ablin says he's "not sure how Best Buy wins in a situation like this," (hint: they don't).
Companies that can win are those with enormous existing ad budgets and strong creative teams. The best ads come from pitting these brands against one another and seeing who wins the evening. The main event in this regard this year, as in so many Super Bowls past, will be the war between Pepsi (PEP) and Coke (KO).
Since everyone already knows what Coke and Pepsi products taste like the companies run what Ablin calls "image ads." He says companies have "a lot of latitude, a lot of flexibility to do something off the wall" since, for example, it isn't necessary to explain what a Dorito tastes like.
Ablin says Pepsi has the better track record on this front. This year the non-Coke will go after hormonal males desirous of snacks, cleavage and magical phones. Coke is counter-punching with ads that I won't have to hide from my children, bringing back their anthropomorphic Polar Bears whose only vices seem to be soda and wagering on football.
Speaking of my children and companies with similar products, Honda (HMC) and Volkswagen are running spots seemingly directed precisely at 40-somethings with children.
Volkswagon's ad for the latest edition of their Beetle is called "The Dog Strikes Back," a strained nod towards last year's wildly popular "The Force." Like the Beetle itself, the commercial seems to say "you're not too old to get back into some sort of shape but your most original, best, work is well behind you."
In a slightly more ambitious effort, Honda is going with a Ferris Bueller riff in an ad featuring Matthew Broderick reprising his star-making role. The difference this time is Bueller is driving an undersized family truckster instead of a Ferrari. It's a better spot but ultimately it's hard to remember which car went with which 25-year old movie parody.
Ablin says the real winner isn't going to come from the usual suspects. "It's going to be the one company, the one advertiser where they're just throwing their entire annual advertising budget into that one ad."
In other words, after all the planning, budgeting, strategizing and hype, both the Super Bowl and the game within the game are likely to be decided by one brief, high risk bet with a huge payoff.
2) In the Markets today:
A better than expected jobs report propelled the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest mark since 2008 and the Nasdaq to its highest level since December 2000.
Stocks jump on strong jobs report for January-From The AP
A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years propelled stocks higher Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 130 points, drawing the average to its highest mark since before the financial crisis hit in 2008.
Before the market opened, the Labor Department said companies hired 243,000 employees in January. That's the strongest job growth in nine months. The increase in hiring pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent.
The surprising data gave stocks a morning jolt. The Dow shot up 161 points in early trading before drifting slightly lower.
"In this economy only one variable matters right now and that variable is employment," said Lawrence Creatura, an equity portfolio manager at Federated Investors.
"This report was great news. It was beyond all expectations, literally. The number (243,000 hired in January) was higher than even the highest forecast."
The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 17 points to 1,342, a half hour before the close. That's a gain of 1.3 percent. The S&P 500 is on track to rise for the fifth straight week, the longest weekly winning streak since January of 2011. It's up 6.8 percent so far this year.
More evidence that the economy is gaining strength followed the jobs report. A trade group said the service industry expanded at the fastest pace since last February. The government also said factory orders rose 1.1 percent in December, supported by a rebound in orders for heavy machinery.
In other trading, the Dow gained 131 points to 12,836, an increase of 1 percent. Bank of America Corp. led the Dow, rising 4.3 percent. Only three stocks were lower: Merck, Procter & Gamble and Pfizer.
The Nasdaq composite added 43 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,902.
Treasury prices fell lifting the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 1.93 percent. When bond prices fall, yields rise. The benchmark 10-year rate had traded below 1.79 percent earlier this week as traders bought U.S. Treasurys on renewed concern over Europe's ongoing debt crisis.
The U.S. jobs figures helped markets in Europe rally on Friday despite further evidence that the 17-country eurozone is heading for recession. Germany's DAX closed 1.7 percent higher, and France's CAC-40 gained 1.5 percent.
Among companies whose stocks are making large moves:
— Genworth Financial soared 13 percent, the best gain in the S&P 500. The insurance company reported late Thursday that it swung to a profit in the most recent quarter, helped by gains in sales of life insurance.
— Weyerhaeuser gained 5.2 percent after reporting better quarterly earnings than analysts' forecasts. The timber and real estate company's earnings still sank 62 percent.
— Video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. rose 3.2 percent. The company reported a 65 percent drop in quarterly profits after the market closed Thursday, but Wall Street's analysts expected much worse.
3) Top financial story of the day:
The labor market grew in January at its most robust pace since last spring, adding 243,000 jobs, in a sign that the economy's momentum carried into the new year.
Jobs Data Show Sustained Growth-From The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. labor market grew in January at its most robust pace since last spring, a sign that the economy's momentum carried into the new year.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 243,000 last month, notching the biggest gain since April, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell by two-tenths of a point to 8.3%, the lowest it has been since February 2009. The figures were much stronger than what economists had expected.
The report also indicated that job growth was stronger in previous months than initially reported, with the economy gaining 60,000 jobs beyond the government's preliminary figures for November and December.
Strong job growth in recent months heightened questions Friday about the Federal Reserve's pledge to keep its key interest rate at near zero though late 2014. The report could also raise the bar for another round of Fed bond-buying. "If these numbers continue, unemployment will fall much further/faster than the Fed expects, so the chance of rates staying at zero through the end of 2014 is much smaller than they think," wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics
The report is the latest sign that the recovery has kicked into a stronger phase since late last fall. Job growth is averaging just over 200,000 new jobs a month since November, compared with an average of roughly 106,000 between May and October. The jobless rate, obtained by a separate survey of households, has declined from 9.1% since August. The latest gains came from a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, hospitality, health care and retail, indicating broad-based strength.
Economists hardly think the economy is in the clear—indeed, an 8.3% unemployment rate is still very high historically. And major risks remain, including the effects of a downturn in Europe. But the report boosts hopes that the economy is improving nonetheless.
In the U.S., stocks moved higher on the back of encouraging data on jobs and service-sector business activity, with the Nasdaq at an 11-year high and the Dow approaching its highest level in nearly four years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 151 points, or 1.2%, to 12857, just shy of the 12876 level reached in May 2008. The Standard & Poor's 500 index tacked on 17 points, or 1.2%, to 1342 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 40 points, or 1.4%, to 2899, its highest level since January 2001.
"This is a very positive employment report from almost any angle," Brian Bethune, chief economist at Alpha Economic Foresights LLC, wrote in a note to clients. "The business sector is gaining momentum."
The report could have political implications.
The economy is expected to play a key role in this year's presidential race. The White House said Friday's reports shows the economy is healing. Republicans have made the modest growth and high unemployment a part of their campaign to unseat President Barack Obama and gain seats in Congress.
"While we welcome the positive news today, I think our point is very simple: we can do better," House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Friday.
Not all of Friday's report was upbeat. The labor force participation rate fell, and some economists said the unusually warm weather and difficulty in accounting for seasonal factors could have led to an overstatement in the jobs data. Workers' average hourly earnings ticked up 4 cents, or 0.2%, but the year-over-year rise still wasn't enough to keep up with inflation.
Still, overall, the report offered encouraging signs. The number of unemployed people fell to 12.8 million, a three-year low. A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those in part-time jobs—ticked down a tenth of a point to 15.1%.
The recent gains in the labor market reflect increasing confidence among private companies, which again fueled the job growth. The private sector added 257,000 jobs, offsetting the 14,000 in job cuts by the public sector—namely, federal and local governments.
The gains were across a variety of sectors. The professional-business-services industry added 70,000 jobs, helped by a rise in temporary workers. Manufacturing employment continued to increase, adding 50,000 jobs.
The resurgent auto industry has been a strong source of job growth. Detroit's Chrysler Group LLC, for one, announced this week that it would add 1,800 jobs at an Illinois plant this year.
4) Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
Those who don't understand determination call determination stubbornness or too driven. To be determined is to see it through! — Catherine Pulsifer
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