Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Attack II - A Complete Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JRI who wrote (5349)	4/9/2001 10:18:16 AM
From: zcole	Respond to of 52237

It would be "de Nile!" ;-) Zane

To: JRI who wrote (5349)	4/9/2001 10:28:17 AM
From: Paul Shread	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52237

Some of John Berry's take on Friday's (un)employment report: BASIS POINTS Sunday, April 8, 2001; Page H02 The report Friday that payroll employment fell by 86,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to a still very low 4.3 percent caused yields on short-term Treasury bills to fall sharply. The headlines about shrinking payrolls caused some analysts to predict that the Federal Reserve Board, which has lowered its target for overnight interest rates by 150 basis points since the beginning of the year, would reduce it again in coming days. But recent public statements by several Fed officials have strongly suggested otherwise. The statements and speeches indicate the officials expect economic growth to pick up gradually without extraordinary measures from the central bank, and short of evidence that that expectation is wrong, the Fed is unlikely to act before its next policymaking session May 15. Furthermore, while no one would call the March employment report strong, its details did not point to a rapid deterioration in the U.S. labor market. Tomorrow, Treasury will sell $9 billion in three-month bills and $8 billion in six-month bills, which yielded 3.88 percent and 3.94 percent, respectively, in when-issued trading Friday. -- John M. Berry Slowdown Causes 86,000 Decline in U.S. Payrolls By John M. Berry Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, April 7, 2001; Page E01 ... Some other details in the report were more positive. The length of the average workweek in the private economy for production and non-supervisory employees rose by six minutes, to 34.3 hours. That was slightly more than enough to offset the decline in employment, so that the total number of hours worked increased. In fact, the Labor Department's index of aggregate hours worked has been virtually flat for a year, rising at an annual rate of 0.8 percent since the end of last year. But because of substantial gains in productivity -- the amount of goods and services produced for each hour worked -- the economy has continued to grow even though the number of hours worked has not. Ray Stone of Stone & McCarthy, a financial markets research firm, said that if productivity rose at a 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter, coupled with the small increase in hours worked, it would mean the economy grew at a 1.5 percent to 2 percent pace in January through March. In other words, if productivity continues to increase -- as Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and other Fed officials believe it will -- it would be possible for the economy to grow slowly while payrolls do not and the unemployment rate goes up. Also, with unemployment at 4.3 percent, many local and regional labor markets remain so tight that workers losing jobs are readily finding new ones. The median length of time people have been without a job was 6.5 weeks last month, up from about 6 weeks for most of the past year. In the early 1990s, that figure was as high as 10 weeks. (At the median, half of those unemployed have been jobless for more than 6.5 weeks and half have been jobless for less.