A Return To US Manufacturing?
I am giving these number about 30 minutes before the close of the market. They may change some, but not much.
Stocks fell today down 140 points (or more by the close) as the financial institutions AGAIN seemed weaker than expected. Bond interest rates fell in sympathy as expected in these circumstances.
Oil, gasoline and Gold fell today some more. Gold hasn’t hit its bottom yet, so just wait for it to bottom.
The Dollar stood still today.
In the news today…..
JP Morgan announced that it lost $1.5B further dollars in its mortgage instrument portfolio. Bad news for the financial industry, but not a surprise for economyguy readers. This is just more drip, drip, drip…. Of bad news.
UBS lost an additional $5B in lousy investments, and some of its richest clients are bailing ship and moving to smaller Swiss banks. The total write-off SO FAR by UBS is $42B – and that is a whopping number for a single bank.
The June Trade deficit was $56.8B, and this was less than expected by the experts. I personally expect the trade deficit to continue getting better as the miserable exchange rate of the US Dollar against most trading currencies is so weak, that it makes it worthwhile for other countries to import our goods. As a side story, I met a fellow passenger on my cruise ship that has a son who has owned a company in China for 10 years, but will be moving his production back to the USA as soon as practical because it is now cheaper for him to produce his things (for the US market) in the US, rather than China. That should be a wake up call to a lot of people.
Here are Today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 11,640 (down 140 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.92% (down 0.08%)
Euro – $1.4923
Gold – $815 (down $14) – Don’t buy yet!!!! Wait for it.
Oil – $113.01 (down $1.44)
Gasoline – $2.86 (down $0.01)
