Jobless Claims Still Bad
Stocks were up 75 today on no news really. Bonds and Gold moved back to the position they were in 2 days ago. The Dollar moved sideways.
Oil and gasoline hit 7 month highs – UGH.
In the news today…..
Jobless Claims – were 621,000 last week. This was a 4,000 improvement, but 4,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the total number. Unemployment is still climbing right now with these types of unemployment numbers. I don’t see these numbers coming down fast enough to have a bottom for jobless claims yet. Unfortunately, for the people losing their jobs. Remember that a rising unemployment number means less consumer spending, more people losing their homes to foreclosure, lower home prices, everything going the wrong way. (Oh, I forgot, the banks are okay thanks to Geithner’s help.)
Retail Sales – is being reported down in May. Another bad sign for the economy right now as consumer spending is about 70% of the GDP calculation.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8750 (up 75 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.72% (up 0.17%)
Euro – $1.4182
Gold – $982 (up $17)
Oil – $68.81 (up $2.69)
Gasoline $1.82 (up $0.05)
