Thursday, February 4, 2010

Morning Market Report

There's all sorts of economic news this morning. First, the weekly first time jobless claims just came out and they disappointed again.


Futures fell sharply Thursday after a surprise jump in jobless claims, a disappointing signal on the employment front ahead of Friday's jobs report.

Initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Economists had been expecting the gauge to drop by 10,000, according to the Reuters survey.

Meanwhile, ADP came out with its monthly private sector jobs survey yesterday.

Nonfarm private employment decreased 22,000 from December 2009 to January 2010 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment
Report®. The estimated change of employment from November to December 2009 was revised by 23,000, from a decline of 84,000 to a decline of 61,000. The January
employment decline was the smallest since employment began falling in February
of 2008.


Tomorrow is D day for jobs. Last month, the economy lost 85,000 jobs. This month's number will provide further evidence of whether or not the jobs picture is in fact improving.

The market looks to open in a peculiar manner. Both the NASDAQ and S&P are looking up near one percent while the Dow is down 1%. In single company news, all eyes are still on Toyota. Everyone is familiary with Ray Lahood's statements and Toyota was off another 6%. It's predicted this recall will cost $2 billion.

The ten year U.S. Treasury bond has improved over the last half hour. It's shaved five basis points and is trading at 3.64%. It continues to be in a range just below 3.60-3.80%. The yield spread between the two and ten year is 2.81%. That continues to test all time highs. The three month t bill is now at .081%. Crude oil is trading at $75.85 a barrel and Gold is trading at $1103 an ounce.

The Dollar is mixed. It's better against the Euro and British Pound but weaker against the Japanese Yen.

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