More Slumping
Stocks slumped 3% today as the worries over Europe and the joke of new jobs hit the news. Europe now overwhelms the good news in the US economy, and is driving stocks down. The overoverwhelming number of jobs were given to us from the government census project, and they will go away shortly.
Bond interest rates fell again on the news – the normal direction when stocks are clobbered.
The Euro got killed, and is now below $1.20.
Gold climbed on the worries and oil/gasoline fell on the probably reduction in demand that’s heading out way – or in fact is already here.
In today’s news……
Unemployment – rate fell to 9.7% from 9.9%. Feel better now? Let’s dig down just a little. There were 431,000 new jobs added in the US. BUT, 411,000 of them were TEMPORARY CENSUS WORKERS. So, guess how many jobs really hit the marketplace? Now anywhere near as many as the “professionals” were predicting.
Census Workers – are being counted multiple times as new employees when they are laid off, and then rehired and retrained in a new position. This is just our government playing games with the unemployment number. I am adding this little tidbit to warn readers to take whatever statistics come from the government with a grain of salt as there is a big conflict of interest going on.
Subprime Loans are back – and they are being sold in the UK by GE and HSBC. Why do I call them subprime? They are two year rate of 5.99% followed by a floating rate, and the borrower can have prior problems paying their past loans. If the Brits are silly enough to reintroduce this type of loan into their market, aren’t we right behind them?
Rumors – which I generally don’t like to spread are hitting the markets, and could have some validity. The first one is that SOCGEN, a big French bank could be having some difficulties (big losses) with its derivatives market. The second is that Hungary is having a problem seeing how It can pay for its debt, and Hungary will be added to the list of European countries who could default – this according to the country’s prime minister who accuses the previous government of lying. Estonia is also possibly having debt problems right now. All these rumors hit the Euro between the eyes which moved below $1.20 today.
Harry Dent – has come out in one of his latest proclamations saying that the US stock market is going to sell off in August. And, he means a big sell off.
Oil Spill – we’re all tired of the oil spill, so I thought you would enjoy this one:
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 9931 (down 324)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.20% (down 0.18%)
Euro – $1.1978
Gold – $1220 (up $12)
Oil – $71.13 (down $3.48)
Gasoline – $2.00 (down $0.09)
