skippy the bush kangaroo: happy june from the bush economic team

Friday, June 06, 2008

happy june from the bush economic team

via cbs marketwatch

continuing its downward slide of the past two weeks, the stock market dropped just shy of 400 points today, the biggest loss in 15 months. cnnmoney:

stocks tanked friday, with the dow industrials shedding 395 points, after oil prices spiked more than $11 a barrel and the may jobs report showed a big jump in the unemployment rate.

bond prices surged, as investors sought safety in government debt, while the dollar tumbled versus the yen and euro.

the dow jones industrial average (indu) lost 395 points, or 3.1%, its biggest one-day decline on both a point and percentage basis since february of 2007, at the start of the subprime mortgage crisis.

yes, the dollar falling against the euro and rising oil prices have a lot to do with the market's performance.

but of particularl interest to americans is the biggest jump in unemployment figures in 22 years. we'll let the wsj (via bondad) reiterate that for us:

the u.s. unemployment rate posted its sharpest one-month increase in 22 years last month, suggesting u.s. consumers already facing a housing slump and soaring gasoline prices now confront even more pressure from a weakening jobs market.

the data, which included a fifth-straight drop in nonfarm employment, should take financial-market expectations of federal reserve rate increases as soon as this autumn off the table.

nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, declined 49,000 in may, the labor department said. the decline was broad-based, including manufacturing, construction, retail trade and business services. payrolls fell 28,000 in april and 88,000 in march. both were revised to show slightly larger drops.

posted by skippy at 6:30 PM |