


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...
Saturday Night Quarterback says (on a Sunday), For the week ahead expect…
...that the big news of the week will be Friday's report on April jobs. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are forecasting that the economy lost another 8 million jobs in May. That's after the loss of 20.5 million jobs in April. These economists project that the...
Another week, another 3.17 million new claims for unemployment, but stocks move higher
Initial claims for unemployment totaled 3.17 million for the week ended May 2, the Labor Department reported today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had projected 3 million new claims for the week. This week's total was down from the 3.85 million initial claims filed...
So what did the Fed’s Clarida say that so disturbed the stock market on Tuesday?
One minute the Standard & Poor's was sailing along, up 1.91% at 3 p.m. New York time. And the next minute stocks were trending downward with the S&P 500 up only 0.75% at 3:42 p.m. The index closed ahead 0.90% for the day. What happened? Federal Reserve Vice...
Today the U.S. economy is looking a tad vulnerable
Yesterday, Wednesday November 28, U.S. stocks saw a huge bounce with the Standard & Poor's 500 climbing 2.3% on a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman "suggesting" that the Fed might slow the speed and limit the number of interest rate increases in 2019. Today,...
Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…
... economic news. Lot of economic news. It is the beginning of the month after all so we're due for all the data dumps from September. We get the Institute for Supply for Management's Purchasing Managers Index for Manufacturing (on Monday) and Services (on...
Notes You Need for June 14: Initial claims for unemployment, airline fares, QCOM server chips, Intel iPhone chips, retail sales, Amazon in Brazil, El Nino
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Moving on: With North Korea summit done, markets focus on Central Bank Week
The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un produced nothing of import, apparently meeting financial market expectations for "much ado about nothing," and all eyes on Wall Street have shifted to what I'm calling Central Bank...
U.S. economy adds 223,000 jobs in May; odds of June interest rate increase bounce back
The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, well ahead of the 190,000 gain expected by economists surveyed by Briefing.com Revised figures for April showed the economy adding slightly fewer jobs, a revised 159,000 new jobs versus an initial 164,000. The official unemployment rate fell to 3.8% in May from 3.9% in April, matching a 18-year low.

Initial claims support belief in strong March job growth report
Initial claims for unemployment for the week ended March 10 fell by by 4,000 to 226,000. That was in-line with projections from economists surveyed by Briefing.com. This is the 158th consecutive week that new claims for unemployment have been below 300,000. The less volatile 4-week moving average slipped by 750 to 221,500.

Headline news on tariffs and jobs set up potential volatility for next 24 hours
The major U.S. stock indexes were just about unchanged at noon New York time today–Standard & Poor’s 500 down 0.02% and the Dow Industrials up 0.25%–ahead of 24 hours or so of high headline risk. Today’s big event–maybe–is the tariff decision that President Donald Trump promised reporters this morning would be forthcoming around 3:30 p.m. this afternoon. Tomorrow’s big news is the release of the February jobs report