Friends,
The U. S. economy produced 80,000 new jobs in October, but Mr. Market did not seem too impressed. The actual unemployment rate edged down to 9% from the previous 9.1% but the fact remains, unemployment is a huge problem and job creation has been anemic at best. Stocks spent the day in negative territory, not necessarily because of the jobs number, but more because of the anticipated no confidence vote in Greece for Mr. Papandreou and the stubborn high interest rates in Italy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day down 61 points and the S&P 500 was down almost 8 points to close at 1253. Gold was down about $9 and oil finished the day about flat just above $94 WTI. Stocks did end up having a down week, but considering the way the week began, I guess one could say it could have been worse. After several weeks in a row of higher prices, we were due to cool down just a bit. Considering the turmoil in Greece this week, the volatility was not unexpected.
Hopefully, we can put some of the Euro news behind us next week and focus on the domestic economy and some of the good earnings we are getting from Corporate America. We gave back about 2.5% this week but overall the 4th quarter is still shaping up to be a whole lot better than the 3rd quarter.
Have a nice weekend everyone. We’ll get back at it Monday.
