Friends
We had some good news on the employment front this morning with the ADP private sector job number coming in at a whopping 325,000 new jobs for December (whopping for recent times anyway). In addition, the weekly new unemployment claim number once again came in nicely under 400,000 and registered 372,000 new claims for December. Tomorrow is the big day as we get the government’s non-farm payroll numbers as well as the new unemployment rate. Hopefully, we can follow through on today’s news and continue to build a better economic picture.
Stocks began the day to the downside as traders once again took their cue from the Euro (which was falling in the morning). Stocks initially fell more than 130 Dow points but spent the rest of the day recovering. By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3 points to finish the day at 12,415. The S&P 500 was up 3 points to close at 1281. Gold was up $11.20 for the day, trading near $1623 at the close and oil was down $1.46 per barrel WTI to close near $101.76.
We are putting the finishing touches on our 1st quarter 2012 outlook and should have that out by Monday of next week. We’ll let you know how the employment picture looks tomorrow and how the markets react.
Have a nice evening everyone.
