Some more positive numbers in housing came out today. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was at 21, the first time that builders’ confidence improved three straight months since 2009. Of course, with real-estate in this country so interconnected with employment, I’m not taking this as a sign that we’re seeing [...]
Folks, I’m making my way back to Chicago today after taking part in yesterday’s Biz 880 Miami Money Expo. Big thanks to Bull & Bear Institute, Currensee, Daniel “The MoneyMan” Frishberg, Charles Schwab and everyone who came out for making the event a rousing success. All the presentations and breakout sessions on stocks, futures, real [...]
Well, folks, what can I say? Today’s monthly jobs number: zero. The economy created no net jobs in August, and the unemployment rate is 9.1%. I’m disgusted. Mr. President, where are the jobs you promised us? Where is the economic recovery we were supposed to see? With all due respect for the office, you should [...]
Folks, the July national jobs report comes out tomorrow, and, as usual, all eyes will be on the numbers within. As you’ll recall, June’s figures were disappointing to say the least, and as a result, there’s not a lot of consensus on what tomorrow will bring. Non-farm payroll expectations on the low end are in [...]
Folks, earlier this morning we got two lukewarm economic reports. On the jobs front: for the first time since April, the weekly unemployment claims fell below 400,000. It wasn’t by much—the seasonally adjusted number of new claims came in at 398,000—but even that small downtick caused the markets to jump. As far as housing, the [...]
Folks, welcome to the new rally! As I write this, prices are spiking all over the world. The strength we’re seeing is a result of today’s ADP report, the jobs number that precedes the big monthly employment figures that will be released tomorrow. According to the report, the private sector added about 157,000 jobs in [...]
Folks, it’s a new month, a new quarter and a new half-year. The QE2 experiment has ended (well, sort of), and the Independence Day holiday is this weekend. Days like these are an excellent time for reflection and self-examination. Look at your portfolio. Look at yourself. Are you doing the right things? That’s what it [...]
Folks, as we jump into a trading week in which there isn’t a lot of data coming out, we’re seeing a market which seems like it may be a little tired. We’ve got an S&P that’s down below that critical 1300 level, continuing a 5-week slide. We’ve got a dollar that’s all over the place. [...]
Folks, as expected, the unemployment numbers that were released this morning were not very good. According to the Labor Department, non-farm payrolls increased 54,000 last month—the weakest number we’ve seen since September 2010. And earlier this week, we saw that private employment increased just 83,000, the worst in a year, while government payrolls fell by [...]
Folks, we’ve all seen this morning’s ADP Employer Services report, which shows that private employers added just 38,000 jobs last month. Considering economists had expected closer to 180,000, that number is a bit disheartening. Without job creation, our economy will continue to have a difficult time. We’ll get the government’s big unemployment numbers Friday, but [...]