Stocks look set to finish the week in fine form following a string of gains. The DOW is on track to close up almost 300 points or a little less than 3% while the NASDAQ is ahead nearly 100 points or just about 4%.
Today’s data is mixed. The ECRI Weekly Leading index slipped to 120.6 as the smoothed annualized growth rate fell below –10% again, hitting –10.1%, the 6th week out of the last 7 that signals recession. For the record I don’t buy the double dip recessionary thesis, not because I don’t think the economy is slipping back into recession. But because the last recession never ended as per the NBER and they are the ones charged with officially dating these things.
The ISM Services Index fell a much larger then expected 2.8 points to 51.5 in August, Weakness was seen across the board, employment went negative at 48.2, New Orders slipped to 52.4 while Business Activity fell to 54.4. The service sector continues to show expansion, but only just as the trend is going in the wrong direction.
The August payrolls report fell less than expected, with just 54,000 jobs lost last month. Prior months were revised to show losses of 54,000 and 175,000 from 131,000 and 221,000 as reported last month. The average work week increased .1 hours to 33.5, average wages gained .2%, while the official unemployment rate edged up to 9.6%. Certainly this report is better than expected, sadly the trend of job losses continues and it should be noted that about 150,000 jobs need to be created each month just to keep up with demographics or population trends.
Hi and welcome to The Profit Motive, I’m your host Caleb Lawrence. Once upon a time in America the media acted as the watchdog of the corporations and the state. In the modern era it’s all about ratings and profits, opinion has been substituted for news and frequently is presented as fact. 
