Jeff, asked for some fundamentals and here they are -g-
...Well the fundamentals are deterioting and the US Economy
is unquestionably softening.
Personal Income In Oct fell unexpectedly for the first time
in 2 years.
To compound the weaking, jobless claims last week jumped unexpectedly to a two-year high.
Personal income slipped 0.2% in October following a strong
1.1% advance the month before, the Commerce Department said
Thursday. The WSJ says that
Economists surveyed by Thomson Global Markets had expected
personal income to increase 0.1%.
Additionally, the number of Americans filing first-time
claims for unemployment benefits last week expanded to the
highest level in over two years.
Jobless claims rose by 19,000 to 358,000, the Labor Department said. The total hasn't been that high since early
July 1998. Economists surveyed by Thomson Global Markets had
expected jobless claims to drop by 21,000 for last week.
The four-week moving average of claims, which smoothes
weekly fluctuations in the figures, rose to its highest level since the summer or July 1998, advancing 12,000, to 343,000.
Today's Chicago PMI tells us more about the slowdown....
Chicago PMI plunges to 41.7%. Troubles at the
auto companies are presumed to be a large part of the
problem as the Chicago index fell to its lowest level in
nine years by our records. This is a harsh
report on the midwest manufacturing sector and will be a
key factor in NAPM due out tomorrow given the heavy national
weight of midwest region. King among the components is new
orders which fell off to 37.9% as order backlogs tumbled to
33.8%. Production slowed to 47% given the decline in
demand as employment fell to 39%. Prices paid fell to
59.1% from a high of 74.2% in March, but the problem
now is demand.
as we see prices paid peaked with the NASD in March. |
