Sharp losses on Wall St. after report of surge in new jobs and wages

[HereSince1628]

But, but, wasn’t that GOOD news? More jobs, more dollars in consumers hands? More spending? More profits for local retailers if not guaranteed bounty for intrepid entrepreneurs like the Waltons? Wow, revenue, PROFITS! Money to expand, money for dividends! Oh Frabjous Day! Kaloo Kalay!

Stop. STOP. You MISSED the point! This was BAD news. Market depressing, if not crashingly bad, news.

I wonder, does this make your head hurt? If it did, even a little, you aren’t yet tempered to be part of the vaunted “Investor Class.”

In our world where one really must go "through the looking glass" to inspect a gift horse's mouth it seems that the Street was hoping for fewer jobs and worse wages to convince the Fed to reduce interest rates and make borrowing cheaper for business. You can eyeball the story here:

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2007/01/05/ap3303231.html

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. Smart people who understand the economy . . .

. . . almost never quote "Jabberwocky".

I am duly impressed, fellow DU'er.

:D

[HereSince1628]

2. Beware, my vorpel keyboard goes 'sniker snack'

Actually that's probably why this story hurt my head.

[Roland99]

3. They're calling it a "surge" in jobs? It was just barely above the equilibrium point!

Spreadsheet format:
http://www.conjur.com/politicsMedia/JobGrowthSince2003Q4.xls

BTW, Dec.'s numbers mark only the 4th time in all of 2006 that the jobs numbers were above the equilibrium point.

[HereSince1628]

6. The Bears are prowling and the copy-writers are looking for anything

to hang a story on. This story hurt my head. But that may be because I think like a traditional labor Democrat.

You are right in the labor numbers not being outstanding. I thought I had read last summer that the economy must add 180,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population expansion of working-aged citizens.

[Roland99]

8. Well, a few years ago, I came across an EPI article, I believe, that mentioned ~`150k

I took the liberty of bumping that up a bit but somewhere between 150-160 seems to be what's needed.

If it's really 180k, then, wow, what a truly shitty jobless recovery we are in.

[cadmium]

4. good jobs numbers have been followed stock slumps for yrs but

I get the impression now that all economic news is more of a shell game. "Wall St cheers on the heels of......!" "Wall tumbles on the heels of......!" headlines come so freqently it is hard to take them seriously. Maybe brokerage houses are encouraging the media to amplify $$$ news to ramp up trading activity.......Just a thought. They get a cut of every trade.

[HereSince1628]

7. I worked on teletype at the CBOT and the Merc when I first got out of service

and the market reporters prepared and sent out stories on old worn machines that broke regularly. As a consequence I overheard a number of conversations as stories were being prepared, and it seemed to me the reporters sometimes struggled to link anything in the news to market movements to meet their deadlines.

[mikeargo]

10. I think you've hit on it

A LONG time ago (maybe during the Great Depression), someone noticed that the brokers were the ones making all the money, so he wrote a book: "Where are All the Customers' Yachts?"

[cadmium]

11. Synergy!

HereSince1628 notes the need for reporters to make deadlines with big stories

The brokers make all the money when either way.

What a bunch of BS for the rest of us!! I remember in the 1990's the barrooms all had CNBC all the time instead of the sports channels.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Karl and the GOP has the MATH down pat!

The ENRON Math!

[Graybeard]

9. A pox on all their houses...

"My father always told me that all businessmen are sons
of bitches..." - John F. Kennedy 

[applegrove]

12. Ding ding ding ding ding! and BINGO!

[kickysnana]

13. Another DUer ""All new jobs are attys for Administration" n/t

[MazeRat7]

14. The bears had been out in force for the first week of the year...

since they typically believe we are in for a low growth year. The hedge fund managers had been buying puts all week to keep tech and other sectors down and then the bottom fell out of the energy market. No single report is going to reverse that trend in one trading session.

That being said, the money that is flowing out of the energy sector has to go some where and this jobs report will help money managers feel more comfortable keeping that money in equities and not moving it into bonds.

So IMHO, the jobs report will provide some lift to the market buy bringing the buyers back next week.

MZr7

[specimenfred1984]

15. Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley rig the major indexes

and when they take profits, down the markets go. Their 2 CEOs just gave themselves yearly bonuses of 27 million and 40 million for doing such good work in rigging the markets.

The 2 firms buy 20,000+ contracts in the S&P 500 futures in 1 and 2 minute increments then sell the contracts whenever they feel like it, it's really easy to spot with real-time quotes. When they buy in large bulk like that, it scares all the other traders and the volume drops to almost nothing as nobody wants to buy or sell when the big corrupt monsters could instantly take the other position.

The corrupt SEC/Bush appointees won't do crap about it either, it's pure fascism.