Stocks added nice gains for the week on generally positive news, since Monday the DOW is up about 200 points or 2% while the NASDAQ has gained some 70 points or 3%. February’s employment report while another loss at –36,000 jobs was better than expectations as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7%. That said the workweek fell to 33.1 hours as average earning increased .2%. This report while better than expected is another example of less bad but not good data, primarily because it takes job creation of about 150,000 new positions each month just to keep up with demographic trends.
The ECRI Future Inflation Gauge fell in February to 101.4 a 10th straight gain as the smoothed annualized growth rate slipped to 31.3%. That said inflation remains muted and related data suggests that on balance deflation remains much more of a concern than inflation. The ECRI Weekly Leading Index continues to fall as the smoothed annualized growth rate dropped 1.2 points to 13.7, the top line number increased to 129.8.
A last round of TALF lending brought a 6-month high in loan activity totaling 4.1 billion as borrowers rushed to pledge, their polite term is non standard, in reality it is impaired ABS issues as loan collateral because the financial sector remains loaded up with toxic assets. Consumer credit data is released at noon and of course its bank failure Friday I’ll have that info and more Monday.
