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Good news. The economy should be the focus of this admin, instead of Obamacare and cap-n-tax.
Figured we could use some positive economic news.
Investors finally find good news on unemployment
NEW YORK — Investors finally got some good news about unemployment.
Stocks rose Friday after the government's July jobs report showed job losses were less than expected and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped.
In the latest sign the economy could be recovering, the Labor Department said companies shed 247,000 jobs in July. Economists had expected 320,000 job cuts.
The unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent in June. Economists forecast the rate would rise to 9.6 percent.
"It's a pretty good jobs number, (and) certainly trending in the right direction," said James Shelton, chief investment office at Kanaly Trust in Houston. "It's not necessarily pointing to growth yet," he added, but it shows deterioration in the economy is lessening.
Investors had been bidding up stocks in recent months amid signs the recession was easing and slowly beginning its recovery. While still showing the economy is not back to normal, the latest jobs data provides further indication of improvement.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 51.62, or 0.6 percent, to 9,307.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 6.31, or 0.6 percent, to 1,003.39, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 15.40, or 0.8 percent, to 1,988.56.
The jobs report showed other encouraging signs as well. Workers' hours moved higher after sinking to a record low in June and paychecks grew after having fallen or flat-lined in some cases.
In corporate news, embattled insurer American International Group Inc. posted its first quarterly profit since 2007. The insurance giant, which is now majority owned by the government, reported a profit of $1.82 billion in the second quarter as some of its businesses stabilized.
The government has provided AIG with a loan package worth up to $182.5 billion and received an 80 percent stake in the firm after bailing it out at the peak of the credit crisis last fall.
Its shares jumped $2.64, or 11.7 percent, to $25.17.
Investors had been cautious this week ahead of the monthly unemployment report. Stocks jumped Monday on promising economic numbers but then held to only modest moves in the days that followed.
Analysts said the pause was in order because the Dow surged more than 13 percent in four weeks on better-than-expected earnings reports.
Meanwhile, bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.84 percent from 3.76 percent late Thursday.
The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies, while gold prices also rose.
Overseas markets also rallied on the U.S. jobs data. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX index gained 1.3 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.9 percent. Earlier Friday, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.2 percent.
Good news. The economy should be the focus of this admin, instead of Obamacare and cap-n-tax.
It's pretty funny how people are getting such hardons for bad news that isn't as bad as expected, even though everyone knew the predictions for how bad the news would be were almost always unreasonably pessimistic.
Hey this bad news isn't that bad! Recession over!
except the real economy is actually much worse. This just represents the economy with the big govt. bandaid over it. The big sore is only getting bigger.
Well, thanks for the dire, unsubstantiated prophecies.
no prob.
America's economy is unsustainable.
i'm going to join the party for failure. lets pray for destruction.
They are holding out hope that the economy stays bad until next fall....they better hope it does stay bad or they're done.
Link or explanation? Not a sarcastic request, I'm curious.
Bull .
I hope the economy takes off. I hope it soars - that unemployment gets back below 5%. "I told you so" doesn't feel near as good as a blowing and growing economy does on my pocketbook.
Anybody here who relished in bad news when Bush was in office, or does now so that Obama can have egg on his face should just STFU. You, obviously, ain't got a dog in this fight.
Hasn't that been done ad nauseum on this forum?
In short, when you spend more than you save you go into debt (talking both private and public). You don't pay off that debt by getting more debt to pay the interests of your debts and the rest on a wii. That only works as long as people are willing to lend you money. As America is finding out, the world is starting to catch on to our scheme and is beginning to get pissed off.
The way to get out of debt is to save/invest more and sell things overseas. That is how you bring money into the country instead of out of it. IMO America doesn't need to to fill factories full of workers to make things like the Chinese do to do this.
Our country believes if we save more than we spend we will enter a deflationary death spiral. This is silly because there won't be less money in the economy, prices will just come down to compete with our savings. To combat our natural stupidity not to spend money that we don't have the govt. has decided it needs to borrow and print money to spend for us.
America cannot go on borrowing Chinese money (or any country, japan, etc.) and spending that money on Chinese plastic toys sold at Walmart. That doesn't create wealth and just makes you a slave to China in the future. That is unsustainable.
It also shouldn't borrow and print money to prop up failing business that also don't produce money in their own right. That is waste and malinvestment. That money could be used more effectively elsewhere.
Neither of these things show any sign of changing no matter who is in office and that is depressing. The bandaid stimulus put on the economy inflating GDP will work in the short run, but unless the bigger problems are solved--which they won't be--we'll have to pay the piper eventually. I'd rather that not happen.
If the FED could magically push the paper around forever making the scam work forever with no consequences I wouldn't care. I just don't think that will happen.
Maybe, but my eyes glaze over when people talk about it, I'm sort of a noob on the subject (taking an Accounting/Finance course for lawyers this fall). Appreciate the summary
It's easy to expect bad news when it is only logical that most things being done are not to help the economy.
You are the fools that saw a $700 bil ulus bill, Obamacare, and capntrade while expecting the economy to magically recover any second.
and yet, it still is.
you didn't like bush's stimulus bill?You are the fools that saw a $700 bil ulus bill, Obamacare, and capntrade while expecting the economy to magically recover any second.
Who on this board said the economy would recover magically or quickly?It's easy to expect bad news when it is only logical that most things being done are not to help the economy.
You are the fools that saw a $700 bil ulus bill, Obamacare, and capntrade while expecting the economy to magically recover any second.
Let's see a link to someone's post of that sentiment.
WooHoo! That's some great news. Good times are back. It's time to party!
A lower unemployment rate is a good thing; but the economy still lost a quarter of a million jobs last month; hopefully we trend upwards from here, and it isn't just a "blip"; or a slow down in filing.
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