Nothing Back
The unemployment rate hit stocks very hard today, with the Dow down 223 points. Bonds gained (lower interest rate), but not much today given stocks big movement.
The Dollar gained back its 1 cent move down yesterday.
Gold continued its seesaw movement going down $10 today.
Oil and gasoline were the other big movers – moving down. This is good news for us energy hogs. Let’s hope the lack of faith in our comeback economy keeps energy prices in check.
In the news today…..
Unemployment Rate – hit 9.5%, up 0.1% from last month. And, I might add, this is only June. There were 476,000 jobs lost in June. The Democrats will blame Bush. The Republicans will blame Obama – the stimulus just hasn’t worked to “create or save 3 million jobs.” If you include those people who are stopped looking for a job, and settled for a part time job, the unemployment rate is 16.5%.
So, where is the good news in these figures? It’s hard to find, but the 476,000 jobs lost is less than those months when it was 500,000 or over 600,000. So, less people are being laid off. It’s still very hard for those who lost their job.
Factory Orders – ROSE 2.1% in May, and represents two back to back months when factory orders rose. This is the good news for today. Hopefully, this will result in fewer layoff, and possibly even some hiring.
Executive Pay – is a cloud of smoke. Do you really know what executives make?? The SEC wants to change things (naturally driven by Obama’s pay czar). For example, the CEO of Citigroup reportedly made $10.8M in 2008 – and that’s the year that Citigroup fell apart. I don’t think this scumbag should have received anything, personally speaking. In reality, he earned $38.2M if his stock options were included in his compensation – but the company didn’t have to report it that way – so the SEC wants more clarity and transparency in executive compensation – and I agree.
California – is paying its vendors in “IOUs” starting today. The state has run our of money, and they HOPE to be able to pay those IOUs sometime in the future. Good luck, all of you who provide services to California. I bet you can’t eat those IOUs.
Tonight’s Dinner Conversation…..
Why did the government bailout AIG with $180B of TARP money? The government certainly knew that the first thing AIG would do was to send a bunch of billions to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – didn’t they???
Why didn’t the government just give that money directly into those two companies and take an equity stake? Those stocks have gone up 4 fold and 6 fold since then. The taxpayer could have been part of that gain.
But, instead, the taxpayer is holding a $180B bag with AIG who will probably end up going bankrupt, and we will get NOTHING back, but those friends of the Treasury, got the big bucks – our bucks.
Remember to thank you local Congressman and Senator by sending them home without a re-election. They let YOU down big time.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8281 (down 223 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.50% (down 0.05%)
Euro – $1.4001
Gold – $931 (down $10)
Oil – $66.73 (down $2.58)
Gasoline $1.79 (down $0.07)