Courtesy of John Nyaradi
Today’s economic reports get an F, for failure.
by Wall Street Sector Selector Staff
It was a big day for economic news that was mostly grim.
Weekly unemployment claims came in at 428,000 versus 417,000 previously and a huge miss from expectations.
The Philadelphia Fed Report declined -17.5, the third negative month out of the last four and a huge miss from expectations.
Empire State Index declined -8.8 compared to -7.7 previously, a miss of expectations.
The only good news was a rise in Industrial Production of +0.2%.
Major markets (SPY) (DIA) ignored the bad news as a coordinated central bank maneuver to save Europe from a credit crunch was announced, ironically, as today, September 15th, is the third anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in history and one of the major catalysts for today’s ongoing financial crisis.
Gold (GLD) and bonds (IEF) declined as the cavalry (central banks) once again came to the rescue of weak economies.
Bottom line: Global tensions are running high and we can expect volatility to continue. Treasury Geithner said there’s not going to be a “Lehman event” in Europe, but then again, he also said the U.S. had zero chance of having its credit rating downgraged. Another day, another crisis. Major indexes are at major resistance so keep an eye on 1200 on the S&P 500 (SPY) Wall Street Sector Selector remains in the defensive mode.
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