The jobs report is slamming stocks today as we inch clsoer to the inevitable.
– The Labor Department reported this morning that nonfarm payrolls rose by a mere 18,000 in December 2007, far fewer than economists had expected. It was the weakest month-to-month change since August 2003.
– The unemployment rate jumped to 5.0%, up from the 4.7% in November, and up from 4.4% in December 2006.
– For all of 2007, the economy added 1.33 million jobs and the unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent, the same as in 2006. Employment growth averaged 111,000 a month in 2007, down from 189,000 a month in 2006
– The number of Americans who filed for bankruptcy in 2007 soared 40%, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
And of course the perma-bull solution? Devalue the dollar further:
“This is recessionlike. I don’t see anything good in it,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s told CNBC this morning. “I think (the Fed) needs to be aggressive here. If they are reticent to cut rates . . . we will be in a recession and they will be forced to cut rates even more in the next few months.”
The builder and mortgage stocks are hitting record new lows, all down between 5 and 10% in a few hours. I think the jury just came back on that whole “soft landing” and turnaround in 2008 thing.
The builder and mortgage stocks are hitting record new lows, all down between 5 and 10% in a few hours. I think the jury just came back on that whole “soft landing” and turnaround in 2008 thing.
The builder and mortgage stocks are hitting record new lows, all down between 5 and 10% in a few hours. I think the jury just came back on that whole “soft landing” and turnaround in 2008 thing.
The builder and mortgage stocks are hitting record new lows, all down between 5 and 10% in a few hours. I think the jury just came back on that whole “soft landing” and turnaround in 2008 thing.
The builder and mortgage stocks are hitting record new lows, all down between 5 and 10% in a few hours. I think the jury just came back on that whole “soft landing” and turnaround in 2008 thing.
