United States

Only 345,000 jobs lost. This is a hugely bullish report despite the headine number.  Markets are already reacting.  Bonds lower (ten-year is getting killed, now near 3.90%), stocks higher. Here is what the Department of Labor had to say…

The number of persons filing an initial claim for unemployment insurance in the week just ended May 30 declined to 621,000 from 625,000 the prior week.  In addition, the number of persons still receiving unemployment insurance dropped to…

As you can probably tell from previous posts, I like he Currency Strategy Team at Brown Brothers Harriman.  I do not always agree with them – I am generally dollar bearish, whereas they are not – but I do like their analysis.  Marc Chandler…

The Institute for Supply Management released its monthly manufacturing index.  The data shows that the manufacturing sector is still contracting with the headline number rising to 42.8 in May, up from 40.1 in April. This number was ahead of…

Below is the opening text to the U.S. government’s press release on the revised GDP numbers from the last quarter.  I have highlighted the most relevant parts in bold.  Overall, these revisions are not significant.  The main…

If you thought jobless claims would fall off rapidly after a peak was made, you were mistaken because we seem to be in a holding pattern above 600,000.  The weekly report for unemployment insurance claims in the U.S. showed 623,000 filing a…

If you thought house prices were about to show some price gains, think again.  The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March 2009 was released this morning and it paints a fairly grim picture.  The Composite-10 index shows an18.6% decline in…

You have probably seen stocks down today.  The dow is off nearly 200 points and the Nasda is down 50.  But, everything American is getting whacked today. The U.S. dollar, stocks, and bonds.  Look at the chart on Treasurys here - especially…

Initial jobless claims rose 32,000 to 637,000 last week in the United States. This helped push continuing claims to another record of 6.56 million, suggesting the unemployment rate will continue to rise at a worrying pace going forward. …

It is not just the Chinese making noises about the reliability of the United States as a debtor.  Now, Japanese politicians are doing it too.  In fact, the Democratic Party of Japan (which is not in power) have said they would not buy U.S.…