Bond Auctions
Stocks jumped upward to new near term highs today – on exuberant enthusiasm – nothing much else.
Gold started back up, and Oil and gasoline jumped massively – only speculation could cause the volatility we have seen in the past two days in the energy futures market.
In the news today…..
Bond Auctions yesterday and today – were much weaker than expected – driving interest rates up. The rumors on the street say that the Chinese purposely stayed away from the auction as a warning to the Treasury that the US must listen to them. Whether this is true or not, interest rates went up, and this auction was one of the worst ones in a long, long time. This is how increased interest rates will hit the US economy – wait and watch.
Jobless Claims – hit 586,000 last week, and was higher than expected. Analysts think the number jumped because previous week’s numbers were artificially lower due to the auto industry hiccups. Conclusion – unemployment is continuing to go up. Oh, by the way, did you hear that unemployment offices are scrutinizing people making these claims to insure they are truly unemployed, and truly looking for work. If they fail the test, they are put on the list of people “not actively” looking for work, and don’t count in the unemployment statistics. Just your government working to keep the politically sensitive unemployment number down.
Oil Supplies – are ballooning in most importing countries right now. Experts are predicting that oil and its derivatives, like gasoline, will fall $10 to $15 where the fair value is about $50 to $55/barrel. Natural gas is plentiful in the US, and recent finds in Louisiana can supply the entire US demand for 20 years.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 9154 (up 84 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.64% (down 0.02%)
Euro – $1.4067
Gold – $937 (up $8)
Oil – $66.93 (up $3.58)
Gasoline $1.99 (up $0.14)