Stocks drifted lower as reports on the job market added to concerns about the economy. Weekly jobless claims surprisingly climbed 38,000, the biggest jump since Nov. 10, to 368,000. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said the number of planned job cuts surged 24% to 40,430 in January. Meanwhile, personal income in December rose 2.6%, while spending inched up 0.2%. Chicago PMI rose to 55.6% in January, to mark the best performance in nine months. MasterCard added 0.47% after the co. reported an increase in fourth-quarter profit but offered a cautious outlook. United Parcel Service fell 2.4% after it projected yearly profit below estimates as a soft global economy reduced shipment demand. Facebook lost 0.83% after several brokers had downgraded the stock following the co.’s fourth-quarter results, which included a forecast for heavy spending in 2013. BlackBerry slid 5.81% after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to underperform, a day after the company unveiled a new line of smartphones. Qualcomm rose 3.92% as several analysts raised their price targets on the stock following better-than-expected report and forecast. Today monthly jobs report is on tap, analysts are expecting that employers added 180,000 jobs in January, and that the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.7% from 7.8% in December.
