Good day, and welcome to another week. Chuck finally made it back home last night, after speaking at two different conferences last week down in Florida. We had a pretty wicked night of thunderstorms last night, so I’m sure Chuck’s flight wasn’t exactly smooth. Sure hope he got over that stomach thing that he had on Friday.
[Read more...]Calls for QE3 on Disappointing Jobs Data
April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day. It was a picture-perfect day here in St. Louis yesterday for our Easter celebration. It’s not often we can do that outside, but outside is the only place you would want to be yesterday! The grandkids were all dressed for the occasion, and they all looked as cute as can be.
Well, the jobs jamboree sure wasn’t cute on Friday. In fact, it bordered on ugly. You may recall that going into Friday’s jobs report, the ADP report on Thursday said the economy added over 200,000 jobs in March, and that the “experts” had forecast an increase in jobs of 205,000.
[Read more...]Risk Assets Trade in a Tight Range
April 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day. And a Happy Friday to one and all! It’s Good Friday for those of us that observe it that way. Good Friday for the markets means that the stock jockeys have headed to the Hamptons already, and the bond boys and girls will close up shop early today, so they can get a head start on getting out of town, too.
[Read more...]Jobs Data Sends Currencies and Gold Lower
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! Congrats to the fans of the Big Blue, NY Giants, who are the Super Bowl Champions, after a very entertaining game. It’s very foggy out this morning here in St. Louis, reminds me of the time my beautiful bride and yours truly were driving home from Des Moines to St. Louis and a very dense fog was everywhere… Not wanting to stop, I cracked the car door open and kept an eye on the white line, which would keep me on the road… Thinking back now, that probably wasn’t a very safe thing to do, eh?
[Read more...]Eurozone Data Continues to Print Weak
January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There’s a lot to get to this morning… but front and center is the Jobs Jamboree Friday… The first one of 2012, although it is December’s job creation report. The ADP jobs report yesterday, which was supposed to be the “indicator” for the Jobs Jamboree, but never really materialized as such, reported that 325,000 jobs were created in December… Now, that would be something to crow about… It will be interesting to see what the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) comes up with… As I told you earlier this week, this is also the month were the “adjustments” to previous BLS reports are made… However, those won’t get a spotlight, and mass media coverage… They are done under the dark of night, sort of like the bill that was signed on New Year’s Eve by the President… If you’re not aware of that one, you should be… Your personal freedoms could very well hang in the balance…
[Read more...]Weekly Jobs Data is Positive, Pushing the Dollar Lower
December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As mentioned in yesterday’s Pfennig, we had a long list of data released yesterday, and most of the numbers indicated that the US economy may be picking up a bit of steam. Producer prices came in right where they were expected, increasing 0.3% MOM and 5.7% YOY. The ‘core’ figure, (ex food and energy) is the one the Feds monitor and both showed modest increases over last month. The biggest surprise came in the form of the Empire Manufacturing number which came in at 9.53 on December versus 3.00 last month. This number reflects manufacturing activity in the NY region, but has a history of being very volatile and therefore an unreliable indicator of future manufacturing growth.
[Read more...]By the Numbers: A Closer Look at the Real Wealth of US Households
December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Americans are poorer than they think…
Dow up again yesterday. Gold still bouncing around…
The press is still focused on Europe. A “deal over eurozone fiscal rules,” was announced earlier in the week. Every day brings more speculation about what form the final deal will take…and whether the European Central Bank will lend a hand.
[Read more...]Did the Jobless Rate Really Fall?
December 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I’ll probably be all alone when I make this statement, but, then I don’t follow the trumpeter anyway… What a crock the Jobs report was last week! When will the major media figure this all out? Probably never, because they don’t have real investigative reporters any longer… But here’s what I’m talking about, folks… The Jobs Jamboree reported that 120,000 jobs were created in November… (The previous month was revised upward from 80,000 to 100,000) So… On the outside, things looked OK… But remember, it takes far more than 120,000 jobs each month to support a strong economy.
[Read more...]
Jobs Data Push Speculators Out of the Market
Good day, and welcome to another week. Chuck finally made it back home last night, after speaking at two different conferences last week down in Florida. We had a pretty wicked night of thunderstorms last night, so I’m sure Chuck’s flight wasn’t exactly smooth. Sure hope he got over that stomach thing that he had on Friday.
[Read more...]