The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 10 percent in November as employers cut the smallest number of jobs since the recession began. The better-than-expected job figures are a rare note of encouraging news for the labor market. The economy shed 11,000 jobs last month, an improvement from October's revised total of 111,000, the Labor Department said Friday. That's much better than the 130,000 Wall Street economists expected. (WOW, THAT IS AWESOME NEWS.........THIS IS A GREAT SIGN THAT BIG THINGS ARE COMING SOON.)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers cut far fewer jobs than expected last month in the best showing for the labor market since the recession began, lifting the U.S. dollar and global stock prices on signs of a stronger economic recovery. +++
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inventories at U.S. factories increased for the first time in more than a year in October, while factory orders also rose an unexpected 0.6 percent, the Commerce Department said on Friday, in signs the manufacturing sector is returning to health. +++
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Because oil prices have always been directly related to the strength of the economy, a recovery might have seen headlines like these:
• The recession ends: Get ready for $100 oil
• The economy roars: $140 oil, is there an end in sight?
• Everyone in China buys a Cadillac: World tapped out
But a growing number of experts are saying that you can forget all that. For the next couple of years, they say, oil prices will remain well below $100 a barrel as the economy remains fragile and efficiency measures kick in. "The world will never run out of oil," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a recent research note, echoing the old logic that the Stone Age didn't end because the world ran out of stone. "If the oil age does end, it likely will be because we become more efficient and simply use less petroleum." It's this "becoming more efficient" idea that the Deutsche Bank analysts use to predict even lower oil prices in 2010 than now - an average of $65 a barrel next year compared to nearly $80 currently. (Positive stuff eh? Good news all around, cheers)
As planned, Bank of America sold securities to raise the capital it needs to settle with the government. The company announced this week that it would repay the $45 billion in bailout money it received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Bank of America raised $19.3 billion, slightly more than the $18.8 billion it originally sought. Shares in the company advanced 0.7% by Thursday's close. Jason Brady, managing director at Thornburg Investment Management, told Bloomberg News, "It's a good thing for Bank of America, it's a healthy thing and it needs to happen," he says of the securities sale and plans to repay the TARP money. (WOW, just more great news.........way to go and more +++ things coming at us soon)
Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. plan to ratchet up first-quarter production to more normal levels, signaling their confidence that the worst of the auto recession has passed. "The industry appears to have stabilized," said George Pipas, Ford's chief sales analyst. Ford, which built a decade-worst 349,000 vehicles in the first quarter of an anemic 2009, plans to boost first-quarter production next year 58 percent to 550,000. GM has an even bigger increase in mind. The carmaker says its first-quarter production will jump 75 percent to 650,000 vehicles from 371,000 in the year-earlier period. The forecasting and consulting firm recently estimated that Chrysler would boost its first-quarter North American production about 56 percent to 376,000, Stoddard said. (Sounds like positive direction with these American car companies)
President Obama convened a "jobs summit" at the White House Thursday morning. It was likely one of the more brilliant moves of his presidency. One of the most notable early promises from Obama was that the massive stimulus measure signed into law earlier this year would save or create 3.5M American jobs. The President and the White House have continued to defend that claim vigorously since stimulus spending began. The biggest challenge for them has been that even though spending has reduced the number of jobs losses, net job losses have continued and thus the unemployment rate continued to rise... until this week.
For months business groups, financial blogs, labor leaders, think tanks and lawmakers were lining up to offer the President their ideas about creating jobs. The Left arguing that more spending is required, while those on the Right argue that the government intervention and spending programs have been wrong all along.
So why hold a "jobs summit," and underscore a 10.2% unemployment rate right at the dawn of an congressional election year? The move is brilliantly timed. Based on the job loss data that we've been tracking here, we've said repeatedly that a return to net jobs growth will be real and measurable in the data by Christmas. This week showed more evidence that economic activity has now resumed to such a level that the unemployment rate has peaked, joblessness has started to fall, and jobs growth is now resuming.
So the timing could not have been better for Obama to go on record on Thursday: "We are going to be bringing together people from all across the country -- business, labor, academics, not-for-profits, entrepreneurs, small and large businesses -- to explore how we can jump-start the hiring that typically lags behind economic growth, but we don't want to wait. We want to see if we can accelerate it." The summit came one day ahead of the government's latest jobs report, which showed job losses all but ended during November and that the unemployment rate is now starting to fall from its peak level of 10.2%. Congressional Democrats who have been bracing for a rough election year in 2010 (owing in part to the weak jobs market), could not be more pleased to see a trend line that now clearly points to jobs creation in the months leading up to those elections. The $787 billion economic stimulus package has now conservatively saved more than one million jobs -- a point highlighted again by Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday. And more projects are in the pipeline that will put Americans to back to work, including very exciting new infrastructure, Internet broadband, and high-speed rail initiatives. As these new programs actually ramp up, as economic recovery continues to gain momentum, and as jobs growth resumes, Obama can now point to a stimulus plan that got the economy back on track, a TARP program that saved our large banks, and a December 2009 jobs summit that was the catalyst to employment creation in 2010. Perfectly timed. (If nothing else, I love the graph Job losses getting better and better.....another great sign for portions of the economy.)
Quote for the day:
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Success is just around the corner."
-Samuel Beckett
Have a great start to the week,
sy
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