Trick or Trend: Drop in unemployment rate almost certainly kills new coronavirus aid package in Senate
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Saturday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. Before...
Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…
...to get more data on the U.S. job market than the financial markets will be able to digest ahead of Labor Day. On Thursday, the Department of Labor will report the weekly initial claims for unemployment. Last Thursday the numbers suggested that the economy was still...
The real economy continues to struggle at MGM and The Gap
The stock market indexes keep hitting new highs. The real economy is struggling to maintain any forward momentum. This morning MGM Resorts International (MGM announced that it would permanently lay off 18,000 previously furloughed employees in the United States. This...
This week another 1 million workers filed an initial claim for unemployment
At 1.006 million in the week ended August 22, the week's initial claims for unemployment were neither as bad as feared nor as good as hoped. This week's figure dropped from 1.104 million in the prior week. (Economists had projected 1 million new claims for the week.)...
Wells Fargo resumes job cuts–will other banks follow?
On Friday August 21, Reuters reported that Wells Fargo (WFC) had in early August resumed the job and cost cutting program that it had paused in March as the coronavirus pandemic raged toward its heights in the United States. In July the bank said it would resume...
Walmart’s caution on an economy without more stimulus
This morning, August 18, Walmart (WMT) reported that comparable store sales climbed 9.3% year over year for the company's fiscal second quarter that ended on July 31. Sales for its e-commerce unit jumped 97% year over year. That was up from growth of 74% in the final...
It’s official: Coronavirus stimulus/rescue talks are dead until September
The Senate officially adjourned today through Labor Day, September 7. The House of Representatives had already been out of season, but now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has announced that she will return to California next week. In the negotiations that collapsed on...
Initial claims for unemployment drops below 1 million for last week
The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits from state unemployment programs fell below 1 million for the week ended August 8. At 963,000 the number was below the 1.18 million new claims for the week of August 1. Economists had expected initial claims of...
So why was Friday’s jobs report for July so worrying?
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July. Not a bad number, on an absolute scale. 1.8 million jobs is a lot of jobs. And the total did beat economists' expectations by about 300,000 jobs. But... The total...
Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…
... chaos is guaranteed in the "negotiations" over another round of coronavirus stimulus/rescue aid. The big question is What effect this chaos will have on financial markets this week? My best estimate: Very little indeed. I expect that stock investors and traders,...
Stocks test rotation again today
This is a pattern that I'm looking for in the U.S. stock market right now. (Notice, please the "a." It's not the only pattern worth watching at the moment.) The next stage in this upward trending market may not be a reversal of the general market or a further soaring...Download Jim’s eBook for Free
