More Lost Jobs
Stocks moved sideways today, as did the Dollar. Bonds took a mighty leap up (decrease in interest rate) as the unemployment figures scared bond traders (but didn’t even concern stock players – another sign of how fickle stocks really are.)
Oil and gasoline jumped up today. It looks like the speculators are active again. Could be seeing some new highs next week.
Gold moved up just a little, and remains a good buy.
In the news today….
The of pink slips handed out in March was 80,000, the most in 5 years. This brings the number of lost jobs to 232,000 in the last 3 months. This is a great measure of the economy as jobs equate to spending power by the general public, and that public spending power represents the overwhelming majority of the
The unemployment rate, on the other hand, is now 5.1%. I strongly recommend you just disregard the unemployment rate. It is a rigged number to make you feel good. It has very little basis in truth. The definition of the unemployment rate, like the CPI (consumer price index), has been changed so many times over the past decades that you wonder if anyone can really understand what these terms mean.
Have a great weekend.
Here are today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial - 12,609 (Down 17 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond - 3.48% (Down 0.11%)
Euro - $1.5739
Gold - $913 (Up $4) - This is still a major buying opportunity.
Oil - $106.23 (Up $2.40)
Gasoline - $2.76 (Up $0.03)
