Posts Tagged ‘wxs’

  • WEX Inc. Drops on Weak Guidance
    , February 6th, 2013 at 10:06 am

    Before the opening bell, WEX Inc. ($WXS) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.07 per share. That was a penny below consensus. Quarterly revenue rose 20.9% to $169 million.

    But the stock is getting smacked around this morning due to the company’s weak guidance. For Q1, WXS expects earnings to range between 89 cents and 96 cents per share. The Street had been expecting $1.08 per share. For all of 2013, WXS sees earnings between $4.30 and $4.50 per share. The Street was expecting $4.88 per share. For all of 2012, WXS made $4.06 per share which was a nice increase from $3.64 per share on 2011.

  • Wright Express is Now WEX Inc.
    , October 25th, 2012 at 10:24 am

    Wright Express ($WXS) has changed its name to WEX Inc.

    Wright Express Corporation, today announced its name change to WEX Inc. The new name reflects the Company’s transformation and growth strategies which are focused on physical, digital and virtual corporate card payment solutions for businesses internationally. The Company will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WXS.

    “Today begins a new chapter in our Company’s evolution with the launch of our new, international brand, WEX Inc. This new brand is built on a foundational set of Company values ― integrity, innovation and execution ― that have remained constant as we have grown,” said Michael E. Dubyak, chairman, president and CEO of WEX Inc. “Over the last 30 years, we have achieved a leadership position in the rapidly changing corporate payments industry through our passion to deliver precision solutions, combined with our persistence in delivering an exceptional customer experience. The ongoing execution of our growth strategy further enables WEX Inc. to diversify its business and expand our international footprint, while maintaining our focus on expanding our core Americas’ fleet business.”

    Since its beginnings as a fleet card provider in 1983, through a successful initial public offering in 2005, WEX Inc. has grown exponentially to become an international company with 2011 revenues of approximately $553 million.

  • Wright Express Drops After Lower Guidance
    , August 2nd, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    I nearly let Wright Express’ ($WXS) earnings report pass without comment. Yesterday, Wright reported Q2 earnings of $1.00 per share which was two cents above estimates. Interestingly, investors were upset in May when Wright gave guidance for Q2 of 92 to 98 cents per share. Now we know that the company was probably being conservative.

    “We are pleased with our second quarter results as steady execution against our multi-pronged growth strategy led to further expansion in our core fleet business and strong performance in our other payments segment,” commented Michael Dubyak, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “In our fleet business, we drove strong vehicle growth through the signing of new customers, in spite of the sluggish U.S. economy. We also made considerable progress towards diversifying our business as we penetrated new verticals with our single-use virtual card and continued to build out our geographic footprint with the acquisition of CorporatePay. While we foresee fuel prices becoming a headwind in the second half of the year, we remain confident in our long term prospects. Furthermore, we plan to continue to invest in our business as fundamentals remain strong and opportunities for growth persist.”

    The bad news, however, was poor guidance. For Q3, Wright sees earnings ranging between $1.08 and $1.15 per share. The Street had been expecting $1.18 per share. For the full year, Wright lowered its previous range of $4.10 – $4.30 per share, to a new range of $4.10 – $4.15 per share.

    In May, Wright had raised its revenue guidance for the year from $590 million – $610 million to a new range of $602 million – $617 million. Now Wright lowered it back down to $591 million – $601 million.

    The CFO said: “Our updated guidance for the full year of 2012 predominately reflects the impact of lower fuel prices, coupled with an adverse impact from foreign currency movements and slight dilution from the acquisition of CorporatePay. Given the economic environment, we are also anticipating softness in our same store sales to persist.”

  • Wright Express Beats the Street Again
    , February 8th, 2012 at 8:37 am

    In last week’s CWS Market Review, I said to watch for good news from Wright Express’ ($WXS) earnings report. The stock has beaten earnings expectations handily for the past few quarters. Wright did it again today.

    Three months ago, Wright said that Q4 EPS would range between 88 cents and 94 cents. Instead, they earned 98 cents per share. Wall Street’s consensus had been for 92 cents per share. That’s earnings growth of 32%. For the quarter, revenue rose 22% to $139.8 million.

    Michael Dubyak, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “2011 was another great year for Wright Express as we experienced continued strength across our business and considerably surpassed our expectations. These results demonstrate further progression against our multi-pronged strategy to grow our North American fleet business, diversify our revenue streams and build out our international presence. The fourth quarter was no exception as we experienced robust performance in our other payments solutions with our corporate charge card product, and steady growth in our core fleet business.”

    Mr. Dubyak continued, “As we enter 2012 and think about the year ahead, our strategy remains the same. We are committed to maintaining our investments in the business to accelerate the development of our new products, while also supporting sustainable future growth both domestically and internationally.”

    Fourth Quarter 2011 Performance Metrics

    • Average number of vehicles serviced worldwide was approximately 6.6 million, an increase of 14% from the fourth quarter of 2010.

    • Total fuel transactions processed increased 8% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to 80.0 million. Payment processing transactions increased 3% to 60.6 million; transaction processing transactions increased 31% to 19.4 million.

    • Average expenditure per domestic payment processing transaction increased 20% from the fourth quarter of 2010 to $70.10.

    • Domestic retail fuel price increased 19% to $3.53 per gallon from $2.96 per gallon in the fourth quarter of 2010.

    • Total corporate card purchase volume grew 66% to $2.0 billion, from $1.2 billion for the fourth quarter of 2010.

    Next comes the guidance. For Q1, Wright said it expects earnings between 87 and 93 cents per share and revenue between $134 and $139 million. For the year, the company expects earnings to range between $4.10 and $4.30 per share on revenue between $590 million and $610 million. It’s too early for me to get a feel for whether or not these projections are too conservative. Wright’s estimates are based on a few assumptions:

    First quarter 2012 guidance is based on an assumed average U.S.
    retail fuel price of $3.56 per gallon, and approximately 39 million shares outstanding. Full-year 2012 guidance is based on an assumed average U.S. retail fuel price of $3.59 per gallon and approximately 39 million shares outstanding. In addition, the fuel prices referenced above are based on the applicable NYMEX futures price. We are assuming the exchange rate of the Australian dollar will remain at a premium to the US dollar. The Company’s guidance also assumes that 2012 domestic credit loss for the first quarter and the full year will range between 13 and 18 basis points.

  • CWS Market Review – November 4, 2011
    , November 4th, 2011 at 6:23 am

    Even though October was the eighth-best month for the S&P 500 of the last 70 years, the market has taken back some of those gains thanks to the recent political chaos in Greece. Here’s what happened: George Papandreou, the Greek Prime Minister, surprised everyone on Monday by putting the euro zone bailout plan up for a referendum. Simply put, that freaked out everyone—and I mean everyone.

    For a few hours it looked like Greece was really honestly going to default. Monsieur Sarkozy said that the Greeks wouldn’t get a single cent in aid if they didn’t adhere to the original terms of the bailout. It got so bad that the European bailout fund had to cancel a bond offering. Yields on two-year notes in Greece jumped to 112%.

    Yes, 112%.

    The ECB, under its new head Mario Draghi, stepped in and cut rates by 0.25% which seemed to calm folks down. At least for a little while. Only after his party revolted against the idea did Papandreou decide to ditch the referendum. That’s what traders wanted to hear. On Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 1.88%, and the index is now up barely for the year.

    So we dodged a bullet for the time being, but we’re not yet out of the woods. I think it’s obvious that Greece will get the aid although the details are still unclear. My fear is that this latest cure only addresses the symptoms and not the underlying problem.

    The issue isn’t that Greece mismanaged its finances (which it did) but rather that the euro zone as currently constructed is inherently unworkable. As it now stands, the countries on the periphery of Europe have to run massive trade deficits with the heart of Europe (Germany, mostly), and without the ability to downgrade their currencies, they’re forced to run large public-sector deficits.

    The equation boils down to this: The euro zone needs fiscal union or the euro dies. Perhaps a smaller euro zone could make it. If the EU was just a trading club for the rich nations of Western Europe, fine—that might work. But what’s happening now, I fear, is just delaying a problem that can’t be avoided.

    The problems in Europe are having an unusual side effect on the stock market here. What we’re seeing is an unusually high correlation among stocks. In other words, nearly every stock is moving in the same direction, whether it’s up or down. It’s important for investors to understand this. The last time correlation was this high was in October 1987 when the market crashed.

    Bespoke Investment Group, one of my favorite sites, tracks what it calls “all or nothing days” which is when the advance/decline line for the S&P 500 exceeds plus or minus 400. Since the start of August, more than half of the trading days have been “all or nothing days” which is a rate far greater than seen in previous years. The current market divide has energy, industrial, material and most importantly, financial stocks, soaring on up days, while volatility, gold and bonds rally on down days. The market is behaving like a legislature that has only extremists and no moderates.

    I don’t believe the high correlation portends any ugliness for the U.S. market. Instead, I think it reflects the dominance of geo-political events over the market. Though one important side effect is that when everyone moves the same way, it becomes much harder for hedge fund managers to stand out from the crowd. That’s why we’ve seen crazy action in stocks like Amazon.com ($AMZN) and Netflix ($NFLX).

    As depressing as the news is from Europe, there’s been more cause for optimism here in the U.S. While the economy is far from strong, it appears that the threat of a Double Dip recession in the near-term has fizzled. Last week, we learned that the economy grew by 2.5% for the third quarter. Job growth, of course, has been distressingly poor.

    I’m writing this early Friday morning ahead of the big jobs report. Economists expect that the jobless rate will remain unchanged at 9.1% and that 100,000 new jobs were created last month. Even if we hit that expectation, that’s still pretty poor.

    The good news is that this has been a decent earnings season for the market and especially for our Buy List. The S&P 500 is on track to post record quarterly earnings. The latest numbers show that of the 415 S&P 500 stocks that have reported so far, 288 have beaten expectations, 89 have missed and 38 were in line with estimates. Outside the S&P 500, 64.5% of companies have beaten estimates and that’s better than the previous two quarters. Our Buy List has done even better. Of the 12 Buy List stocks that have reported so far, ten have beaten earnings estimates, one missed and one was inline.

    On Tuesday, Fiserv ($FISV) reported third-quarter earnings of $1.16 per share which was two cents better than estimates. The company also raised its full-year guidance (man, I love typing those words) from $4.42 – $4.54 per share to $4.54 – $4.60 per share. Shortly before the earnings report, Fiserv’s stock gapped up to over $61 but then pulled back after the earnings report came out. Fiserv is a good buy up to $62 per share.

    Our star for the week and perhaps for the entire earnings season was Wright Express ($WXS). The stock soared 12% on Wednesday after its blowout earnings report. The company, which helps firms track their expenses for their vehicle fleets, reported third-quarter earnings of 99 cents per share which was six cents better than Wall Street’s consensus. That’s a 38% jump over last year. The company also said that it expects between 88 cents and 94 cents per share for the fourth quarter (the Street was expecting 94 cents per share). I was happy to see Wright extend its gain on Thursday as well. I rate Wright Express a buy up to $53.

    The big disappointment this week came from Becton, Dickinson ($BDX). For their fiscal fourth quarter, Becton reported earnings of $1.39 per share which was inline with Wall Street’s estimate. The problem was their guidance for the coming year. Becton said that they expect earnings to range between $5.75 and $5.85 per share. That’s far below Wall Street’s forecast of $6.19 per share. I’m disappointed by this news but Becton is still a solid company. Sometime later this month the company will likely raise its dividend for the 39th year in a row. Investors shouldn’t chase this one but if the shares pull back below $65, I think Becton will be a good buy.

    I also need to explain what happened to Leucadia National ($LUK) this week. A ratings company downgraded Jefferies ($JEF) in the wake of the immolation of MF Global. Leucadia owns about one-quarter of Jefferies so that impacted their stock as well. However, it’s not clear that Jefferies’s health is anywhere as dire as MF Global’s. Actually, the facts indicate that it’s almost certainly not.

    At one point on Thursday, shares of Jefferies were off by more than 20% but cooler heads prevailed and the stock finished the session down by just 2.1%. Leucadia took advantage of the panic and picked up one million shares of JEF. At the end of the day, Leucadia’s stock managed to close six cents higher. The stock remains an excellent buy. By the way, this a good lesson on why you should be careful with stop-losses. Panic can set in and bust you out of good trades.

    That’s all for now. In addition to tomorrow’s big jobs report, Moog ($MOG-A) is due to report earnings. Then on Monday, Sysco ($SYY) is scheduled to report. Be sure to keep checking the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    – Eddy

  • Wright Express Earns 99 Cents Per Share
    , November 2nd, 2011 at 9:05 am

    Our second earnings report this morning comes from Wright Express ($WXS). The company earned 99 cents per share for the third quarter which was six cents more than estimates.

    For the fourth quarter, Wright expects earnings between 88 cents and 94 cents per share. Wall Street was expecting 94 cents per share.

  • CWS Market Review – October 7, 2011
    , October 7th, 2011 at 9:27 am

    On Monday, the S&P 500 finally broke out of its 100-point trading range. For 41 sessions in a row, the index had closed between 1,119 and 1,219. But on Monday, the S&P 500 dropped down to close at 1,099.23. That was our first close below 1,100 in over a year.

    Since then, the market has raced higher. On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed at 1,167.97 which is a 5.98% surge in just three days. Naturally, we shouldn’t get too excited by this recent uptick. For the last several weeks, the stock market has bounced up and down in high-volatility spikes, but ultimately, we haven’t moved very far. However, with earnings season upon us, this time could be different.

    As usual, the hurdle has been Europe, and more specifically, Greece. For a few months now, investors have been jerked around as we wait to hear something (anything!) promising from the Old World. Unfortunately, European officials seem firmly committed to doing a series of half-steps—and after each one, they seem puzzled that things aren’t getting any better. The good news is that it appears as if some folks in Europe are starting to understand what needs to be done.

    In this issue of CWS Market Review, I want to give you a preview of the third-quarter earnings season. While the overall market continues to spin its wheels, I think several of our Buy List stocks are poised to surge higher. In fact a few of our stocks, like Deluxe ($DLX) and Ford ($F), have already started to turn the corner.

    I’m writing you in the wee hours of Friday morning. Later today, we’ll get the crucial jobs report for September. Wall Street has been dreading this report for several days now, and it’s easy to understand why. Frankly, nearly every jobs report for the last few years has been dismal. I’m afraid I’m not expecting much better for September’s report. Wall Street is expecting a gain of 60,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, and as low as that estimate is, it might be too high.

    If the news is better than expected, it may take some of the pressure off the Federal Reserve to get the economy going again. But bear in mind that the economy needs to create, on average, 200,000 net new jobs every month for a few years to get back to anywhere near normal. Truthfully, I think many of our economic problems are beyond the scope of the Fed’s repair kit, but I’ll save that for another time. If Friday’s jobs report is worse than expected, well…we’re already down so much that it may not hurt equities (although the political fallout could be dramatic).

    The truth is that the U.S. economy isn’t doing nearly as badly as is generally perceived. Of course, I’m not saying that the economy is humming along. I’m just saying that its performance is far better than the febrile commentary I see every day. Consider that earlier this week Bespoke Investment Group noted that 17 of the last 21 economic reports have come in better than expected. Just this week, the ISM Manufacturing index topped expectations. The ADP jobs report beat consensus and the construction spending report was surprisingly strong. On October 27th, the government will release its first estimate of Q3 GDP growth and I think it’s possible that growth will come in over 2%. That’s not great, but it’s a far cry from a Double Dip.

    Another promising note is that bond yields are finally beginning to creep higher. This is an early signal that investors may be willing to take on more risk. What’s interesting is how orderly the increase in risk is turning out to be. Yields for the one-, two- and three-year Treasuries all bottomed out on September 19th. Three days later, the yields for the five-, seven-, ten-, twenty- and thirty-year Treasuries hit their lows. Since then, the yield on the ten-year note has jumped 29 basis points. The five-year yield just closed above 1% for the first time in six weeks. The takeaway is that this orderly exodus out of low-risk investments may provide fuel for a sustained stock rally. Capital always goes where it’s treated best. If Friday’s jobs report comes in strong, Treasuries will continue to fall.

    I’m pleased to see that many of our Buy List stocks continue to do well. In the last two weeks, the Buy List has gained 2.11% while the S&P 500 is down by 0.15%. On Thursday, shares of AFLAC ($AFL) got as high as $38.40. That’s the highest price since mid-August and it’s a 22% bounce off the low from two weeks ago. I’ve been flabbergasted by AFLAC’s recent plunge. The company is clearly doing well. I expect to see another strong earnings report on October 26th. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see another upward revision to next year’s earnings guidance. Still, investors seem convinced that AFLAC is taking a bath on its European investments. They’re not. AFLAC is well protected. The stock is a very good buy up to $40 per share.

    Another big gainer recently has been JPMorgan Chase ($JPM). Over the last three days, the shares have gapped up by 14%. Next Thursday, JPM is due to report its third-quarter earnings. This will be the first of our stocks to report this season. Due to the problems in Europe and in our economy, Wall Street has been ratcheting down estimates for JPM. The Street currently expects JPM to report 98 cents per share which is 23 cents less than what they were expecting just one month ago.

    I have to admit that I don’t have a good feel for what JPM should report next week. In previous quarters, I had a pretty good idea but there are too many unknowns to give you a precise forecast. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see JPM miss estimates this time around; but I’ll be far more interested to hear what they have to say about their business. JPM continues to be the healthiest of the major banks. Thanks to the lower share price, the stock currently yields 3.2%. I also expect that the bank will bump up that dividend early next year. In fact, they could easily raise the dividend by 30% to 50%. If next week’s earnings report is positive, JPM would be a good buy up to $34 per share.

    I’ve been very frustrated by the performance of Ford ($F) but I have to admit that the stock is well below a reasonable valuation for the company. Ford has turned itself around very impressively. I don’t like many cyclical stocks but Ford looks very good here. Sales continue to do well. The shares are currently going for about one-third of its sales. If you’re able to get shares of Ford below $11, you’ve gotten a very good deal.

    There are a few other stocks I want to highlight. Over the last three sessions, shares of Deluxe ($DLX) are up nearly 18%. Even after that rally, the shares still yield 4.7%. Jos. A Bank Clothiers ($JOSB) is up over 10% since Monday and Wright Express ($WXS) has tacked on 13%. Last week, I highlighted Moog ($MOG-A), one of our quieter buys, and the stock has rallied nicely since then.

    That’s all for now. Be sure to keep checking the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    – Eddy

  • CWS Market Review – August 19, 2011
    , August 19th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    The stock market seemed to be recovering for a few days. That is, until Thursday hit. From the S&P 500’s low of August 9th (1,101.54) to the high of this past Wednesday, August 17th (1,208.47), the market gained an impressive 9.7%. We’re still a way from the recent peak of July 22nd, but it’s nice to regain some lost ground. The bears, however, got back in control on Thursday and shaved another 4.46% off the index.

    So where do we go from here? It’s still hard to say but in this issue of CWS Market Review, I want to discuss some likely scenarios and more importantly, tell you how to position yourself for the weeks ahead.

    Initially, I was never terribly impressed with the arguments made by the folks who were expecting a Double Dip recession. After all, these folks already blew this call last year as their worrying helped bring down the market by 18%. All their panicking did was offer up some great bargains. Anyone else remember when Wright Express ($WXS) broke below $30 last summer? Thank you, panic sellers!

    Over the past few days, I’ve become more convinced that the fears of a Double Dip recession are, as of now, vastly overblown. As always, let’s look at the facts rather than at our emotions.

    Earlier this week, the government released its industrial production report for the month of July, and it showed the largest increase in four months. This is important because most of the other reports were for the month of June which was in the second quarter. Only now are we getting a better handle on the third quarter which is already more than half over. For July, industrial production rose by 0.9% which nearly doubled the 0.5% expected by Wall Street. Also, capacity utilization hit 77.5%, a three-year high.

    Last week, the number of initial claims for unemployment dropped below 400,000 for the first time in 17 weeks. Yesterday’s report showed that we jumped up to 408,000 but the trend is still favorable. Also, the recent report on retail sales was the strongest in four months. This is important because it reflects the strength of consumers, the backbone of the U.S. economy. For July, the Commerce Department said that retail sales rose by 0.5%.

    I don’t want to ignore the bad spots. Housing is still a mess and the jobs market is bleak. The recent Consumer Confidence survey was terrible. It was the lowest number since the Carter Administration. Also, I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the ISM report at the beginning of the month. But even that mediocre report is still a long way from a recession. We have to view the actual news in context of what everyone else’s perception is. Bear in mind that the 10-year Treasury dropped below 2% and the 10-year TIPs is negative. The fear on Wall Street is massively overdone.

    My view is that the economy will probably bounce along at a growth rate between 1% and 2% or so. For folks out of work, that’s bad news. But the outlook for corporate profits and, by extension, the stock market, is still pretty decent especially considering the cheap valuations and extremely low Treasury yields.

    I took notice earlier this week when both Home Depot ($HD) and Walmart ($WMT) reported higher-than-expected earnings; plus both companies raised their full-year earnings guidance. I can’t think of a company that better reflects the breath of American shoppers than Walmart. We’re not yet seeing earnings revisions from most companies. Wall Street still expects the S&P 500 to earn close to $100 this year and $113 for next year, though I think the latter number should probably be close to $105.

    Due to the sluggishness of the economy, I still encourage investors to steer clear of most of the cyclical names. I’m writing this early on Friday and the Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index (^CYC) actually broke below 800 very briefly. That’s a stunning 28% collapse in just six weeks. That’s the thing about cyclicals—they move in cycles. When everything is good, it’s very, very good. When it’s not, get out of the way.

    I’m inclined to believe that the worst of the selling has past. That doesn’t mean we won’t go lower from here, but future selling won’t match that selling we’ve already seen. Bear attacks usually end before most investors realize it. I’m also struck by the persistence of high volatility. Instead of reflecting danger in the markets, I think high volatility is more of a reflection of the war between the Double Dip and Anti-Double Dip camps. Once the market settles on a thesis, I expect a quick return to low volatility, but there will be fits and starts along the way.

    I still like a lot of the names on our Buy List. Let me highlight a few that look especially good right now. I noticed that Oracle ($ORCL) dropped down below $26 per share. Let’s remember that this company has been consistently beating earnings, and Wall Street has been raising estimates. For this current fiscal year (ending in May), Wall Street expects earnings of $2.41 which gives ORCL a forward P/E Ratio of 10.6.

    I have to fess up that I blew my Sysco ($SYY) call. In last week’s issue of CWS Market Review, I said expect earnings of 60 cents per share, plus or minus two cents. Instead, Sysco reported 57 cents per share which matched Wall Street’s estimate. The shares got pounded hard on Monday and they’ve continued to retreat.

    It turns out what I missed is that the company was hurt by food cost inflation more than I expected. That put the squeeze on margins which is what every business hates. However, in pure operational terms, I think Sysco had a decent quarter. When we look at a company, we have to discern between manageable problems and non-manageable ones. For Sysco, higher food costs are ultimately very manageable. The silver lining is that Sysco now yields over 3.8%. This is a very good stock to own below $28.

    We’re soon going to get earnings reports from our companies that have quarters ending in July. Medtronic ($MDT) is due to report this Tuesday, August 23rd. Jos. A. Bank ($JOSB) will probably report around September 1st. Wall Street expects earnings of 79 cents per share for MDT which sounds about right. Frankly, even if they miss by a little, Medtronic is so cheap right now that the stock shouldn’t be too dented. The stock currently yields a little over 3%. Medtronic is a good buy below $32.

    That’s all for now. Be sure to keep checking the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    – Eddy

  • Wright Express CEO on Business Outlook
    , August 4th, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Via TheStreet.com:

  • Stockmageddon
    , August 3rd, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    What a crazy day on Wall Street. Even after yesterday’s plunge, the market started off on a bad foot this morning. By 10:40 am, the S&P had lost 1.55%.

    Then we suddenly rallied and closed at 1,260.34 which is a gain on the day of 0.50%. Our Buy List did even better as it gained 0.68%.

    The S&P 500 finally snapped its streak of seven-straight down days. The Dow had fallen for eight straight days in a row (and the S&P 500 was only up a measly 0.09% on the day before its streak began). Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) has fallen for eight straight days. In the last two weeks, the stock market has lost a total of $1.07 trillion in market value.

    Every day we’ve been getting hit with bad economic news. On Friday, it was the GDP. On Monday, it was the ISM manufacturing index. Yesterday, it was consumer spending. The bad economic news today was that the ISM service index hit its lowest level since February 2010.

    There’s no big economic report due tomorrow (the initial jobless claims figure isn’t that important). But the big report will be the jobs number on Friday morning. I hope I’m not ruining your suspense when I say that it won’t be good. Wall Street is expecting a gain of 115,000 jobs. This morning, ADP said in its jobs estimate that the economy created 114,000 new jobs last month. Wall Street is getting the message. JPMorgan Chase ($JPM) cut its estimate for third-quarter growth to 1.5%.

    This morning, I posted on Wright Express’ ($WXS) good earnings report and higher guidance. At least I thought it was a good report. At one point, shares of Wright were down 6.75%. Then, much like the overall market, WXS started to surge. The stock closed the day at $47.21. That’s 1.48% higher than yesterday’s close and 8.83% above today’s low. I have no idea how that makes sense, but that’s daily market activity for you.