Bill Losey’s Weekly Economic Update for March 8, 20109.7% and holding. The Labor Department reported only 36,000 net job losses last month, so the jobless rate was flat for February. Economists had widely assumed the unemployment rate would inch upward due to winter weather affecting construction and retail industries. Major boost in factory orders. They rose 1.7% in January, according to Commerce Department data. This is the best number in four months and follows a 1.5% advance for December. Pending home sales sink. What does the 7.6% fall for January indicate? It would seem to signal that the extended tax credits have become less magnetic to buyers. Let’s hope sales hold up this spring as the Fed ceases its purchases of mortgage-linked securities. Gold, copper, oil go higher. Copper prices rose 4.10% last week to $0.134/lb. Gold gained $16.50 last week (1.48%) to settle at $1,134.80 an ounce Friday. Crude futures rose $1.84 last week (2.31%) to $81.50 per barrel on the NYMEX at Friday’s close. March of the bulls? Wall Street was buoyed by the unchanged jobless rate on Friday, and the Dow climbed 122.06 to cap off its 2.33% weekly gain. The S&P 500 did even better: a 3.10% rise on the week to 1,138.70 at the closing bell on Friday. The NASDAQ? It advanced 3.94% on the week to 2,326.56.
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My Attorney Made Me Include This:
Bill's blogs, articles, and economic reports are meant to provide you with general investment, financial and retirement information. They are not designed to be a definitive investment guide or to take the place of a qualified financial planner or other professional (because that would be just plain crazy). Given the risks involved in investing, there is absolutely no guarantee that the strategies or methods suggested on Bill's website will ever be profitable. If Bill could guarantee your results, he'd be passing the Grey Poupon to his wife aboard some pimped-out yacht in Tahiti by now. Here's the bottom-line: Bill does not assume liability of any kind for any losses that may be sustained as a result of applying the methods suggested and any such liability is hereby expressly disclaimed. Caveat emptor! Oh, one more thing...portions of the content on Bill's website were prepared by MarketingLibrary.net Inc.