Oregon and New Mexico announce statewide coronavirus lockdowns
The question has been How long would it be before the surge in new coronavirus infections forced sta... To subscribe to JAM you need to fill in some details below including, ahem, some info on how you'll pay us. A subscription is $199 (although if you're subscribing...
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...
Market is amazingly calm today–all things considered
Let's see. The Senate went home for the weekend without passing an extension to the $600 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits--so that program will pay out its last checks tomorrow. China retaliated for U.S. action to close China's Houston consulate on accusations...
Market worries that a smaller-than-expected drop in new claims for unemployment portends future downturn in economy
Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totaled a seasonally adjusted 1.3 million in the week ended July 11, down just 10,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department reported this morning. That's the smallest drop in the new claims since March and feeds...
Another day, another market Put: this time it’s remdesivir
Let's count the Puts that are keeping any Bad News Bear from biting this market. Of course, first and foremost there's the Federal Reserve Put (or Powell Put for lovers of alliteration). The Fed has told investors they can expect the current near 0% interest regime to...In context today’s new claims for unemployment number is bad news
These days you can't read an economic report, especially a jobs report, without a calendar. Today's report on initial claims for unemployment -- a weekly number for the week ended July 4--showed that new claims for unemployment continued their slow drop. The total of...
Inflection point for stocks approaches
Today what I'm calling "re-opening dependent" stock fell again. At least in the early going. Toward the end of session--like yesterday--these stocks and stocks in general rallied. Which in and of itself tells us something important about this market. First, the 2 p.m....
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin tells Congress what Trump administration expects from the economy
In testimony before the House of Representatives this week Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the Trump administration believes that the U.S. economy will recover extremely quickly. He forecast growth of 17% in the third quarter and 9% in the fourth later....
What do you know? A rational stock market for a day!
Stocks refused to follow the headline job gains reported today--and instead focused upon the uncertainty in the economy looking forward as the re-opening economy gave off signs that the recovery might be about to stall--or even step backward. Even though the June jobs...
This is as good as the economy gets–for a while
The U.S economy added 4.8 million jobs last month in June. And the official unemployment rate fell to 11.1%. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the gains in jobs and the drop in unemployment are based on data from a survey that measured conditions in the week ended...
Apple says it will close 30 more stores
I'm using Apple (AAPL) as one indicator for the state of the re-opening economy. Apple's decision today to re-close 30 more of its stores in seven states, including Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, is a sign...Download Jim’s eBook for Free
