Daily Investment Interpretations
April 2, 2009
2009-4-2:
Today, the markets rose substantially for the third day in a row. The NASDAQ
added 51.03
points (3.29%)
to close at 1,603,
the Dow
climbed 216.48
(2.79%)
to 7,978,
and the S&P
500
increased 23.30
(2.87%)
to close at 798.
Oil
was unchanged at $52.21,
and gold
lost $18.80
to $908.90:
The VIX
fell 1.86
to
42.04.
The day's news began with the announcement that the four-week
average of initial jobless claims, at 656,750, has reached its highest level
since October, 1982:
Relentlessly
higher jobless filings. The four-week average for continuing claims also
rose, up 163,500 to a record 5.6 million. Meanwhile, the insured unemployment
rate rose to 4.3% from 4.2%, the highest level since May, 1983. "'Needless
to say, these are terrible numbers, especially the continuing claims figure,
which really is disturbing,' wrote Dan Greenhaus of the equity strategy group at
Miller Tabak."
"On
Friday, the government will report nonfarm payrolls for March, and analysts
polled by MarketWatch are looking for about 660,000 job losses as well as an
unemployment rate of 8.5%."
At the current layoff rate, it would take about four more
months for the official unemployment rate to reach double-digit levels.
It's interesting to me that last fall, layoffs were
everywhere in the news. Now, you rarely see a news item that mentions
layoffs(?).
Consumer
loan delinquencies hit a record 3.22%
U.S.
stocks rally further on rise in factory orders
In Permanent
Link to “The banks” versus “some banks”,
Avalon
economist Peter Cardillo plays taps for a fallen bear
Sound
Economy with Jon Talton | Behind the big rally, dangers of another bubble
New
signs emerge that recession may be near bottom
Consumer
loan delinquencies rise in 4th quarter
Analysis
| Searching for the bottom