Posted on 09/05/2003 7:39:27 PM PDT by riri
Investors who spent the week bidding stocks higher reversed course Friday after the latest labor statistic
Despite Friday's losses, the Dow industrials rose 0.9% for the week, its fifth-consecutive weekly gain, and the Nasdaq gained 2.6%.
Nonfarm payrolls dropped 93,000 last month, the steepest in five months, after falling a revised 49,000 in July, the Labor Department said early Friday. The unemployment rate edged down to 6.1%. Economists had predicted an increase of 12,000 in nonfarm payrolls and expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 6.2%.
Economists weren't impressed.
"The jobs report is just awful," said Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston. "I still lean toward believing that spending by consumers, government and businesses adds up to enough to generate a self-sustaining cycle of income gains and job creation. But it's definitely cause for concern about the outlook."
Strong productivity has allowed companies to increase output without increasing workers.
The latest report did offer some glimmers of hope. There was a slight increase in temporary hiring last month, a possible precursor to companies bringing on more full-time employees. Some economists remain confident the accelerating economy will soon leave employers little choice but to start hiring when improved productivity alone isn't enough to meet demand.
Among stocks to watch Friday, Intel finished flat after the company late Thursday raised its third-quarter sales forecast. The chip maker now expects revenue between $7.6 billion and $7.8 billion, in the upper range of its Aug. 22 forecast of $7.3 billion to $7.8 billion.
Wal-Mart shed 2% after Banc of America Securities analyst Aram Rubinson cut his investment opinion on the company's stock to "neutral" from "buy," saying comparable-store sales are "unlikely to see any further acceleration" after reaching 6.9% in August.
Verizon Communications late Thursday struck a deal with two unions representing some 79,000 of its employees after weeks of negotiations. Its shares moved down almost 1%.
In major U.S. market action Friday:
Stocks declined. On the Big Board, where 1.45 billion shares traded, 1,785 stocks fell and 1,463 rose. On the Nasdaq, where about 1.95 billion shares changed hands, 1,780 stocks declined and 1,409 advanced.
Bonds gained. The 10-year Treasury note rose 1 1/4 points, or $12.50 for each $1,000 invested. The yield, which moves inversely to price, fell to 4.349%. The 30-year bond was up about 1 7/8 points to yield 5.185%.
The dollar was mixed. It traded at 116.88 yen, up from 116.74 yen late Thursday in New York, while the euro rose to $1.1106 from $1.0941.
At this rate the unemployment numbers will be "lagging" right into the next recession. Sheesh.
How's the job market in India, the Philippines, China, or maybe Ireland?? Betcha they had double digit job growth, 90% of it fueled by the growing U.S. economy.
No worries, mate! The gov'ment is gonna take care of all of us. Hey... I have idea. Maybe the U.S. government can start a national job placement agency. We can employ a million Americans.. talk about job creation! All they'll have to do is create a listing of every employed American over the age of 35 with a college degree, and start matching their jobs with qualified foreign-national applicants (FNAs). Then they can take bids from the FNAs on your job. Heck, there'll probably be 10 qualified FNAs for every single job. Wages will drop though the floor, for those serfs (oops..employees) still working. Inflation will drop below zero (i.e. "deflation"). The "business friendly" environment will jump-start the economy, creating yet more jobs.
Democrats will have millions of new voters, plus millions more permanent dependents for the welfare system.
Everyone wins!
< /end sarcasm >
SFS
If a Democrat was in office the liberal media would be reporting about this amazingly short recession and how the President should be enormously credited for keeping the economy from free falling after all that has happened since the NASDAC bubble bursted in 1999, the recessions start in 2000, the attacks of 9/11 and the corperate scandals just after that.
I feel we are damn lucky things were not a hell of a lot worse than they were, You can focus on the negatives all you want, I choose to think differently.
Cheers
I'd be willing to bet that, during WWII when the Germans started haluling people away to 'work' camps, there were people in the Warsaw Ghetto watching trainloads of their people hauled off and commenting that it wasn't all that bad: after all, look how many are still left.
I hope you are correct. The big difference is we weren't shipping entire professional, white collar departments and divisions to 3rd world countries during, before or after that recession.
The already have. In China and India and such. 93,000 last month alone.
Bravo, You should start your own debating school < /sarcasm > off
Well, it most certainly seems to have gotten your attention, now hasn't it?
BTW, I don't debate. I state my position. Take it or leave it as you please.
Serves 'em right, hate it for me and other investors.
As evidenced by what?
As evidenced by what?
The idea is that emerging economies will stand in line to buy these goods. These are multi-national corps. Products made in China, distributed throughout the world. The U.S. is merely a bedroom community.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.