Another bad day for Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and gaming shares in general. The stock is down again quite dramatically, off by $3.53, or 3.70%, to $91.84 as another piece of the bull case for the stock is coming undone. It wasn’t weak numbers from Macau today, but rather it was a lousy and decidedly bearish December jobs report that is leading investors toward the exits. According to wire reports, the December report showed a gain of 18,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate went up to 5%.

See more: Las Vegas Sands Shares Drop On Lower Macau Revenue Growth

Economists were predicting jobs growth of 70,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. Despite a laundry list of negative factors such as a volatile stock market, a slumping housing market and economic fears of recession, Las Vegas gambling revenues were way up on the Strip in 2007. However, the latest economic data really questions how the Strip can hold up and continue to be resilient, especially as its counterparts elsewhere throughout the U.S. have faltered. A recent New York Times article quoted William P. Weidner, the president of Las Vegas Sands as saying “our numbers are up, up, up” and that since “much of our gambling revenues are driven by very high-end foreigners, especially out of Asia… the Asian economy has not really been affected by the fallout from subprime mortgages.”

While no one is forecasting total gloom and doom yet, no matter what the company says, weakening consumer confidence and spending on the back of recessionary fears will hurt the gaming environment and no doubt have a quantifiable impact on the company’s earnings results. It should also raise concern for a potentially weaker than expected Palazzo debut in mid-January. Barring a market turnaround in which Las Vegas Sands would be a solid bounce candidate (after all, the stock is stunningly oversold and short sellers might lighten up on their short positions that have increased by 20% over the last month from 5.31 million to 6.57 million shares), the news does not bode well for the fourth quarter earnings call and outlook which is now securedly cloudy.

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