Monday, March 09, 2009
How Low Can We Go?
Since my last post the markets have again fallen heavily.
On Friday the markets attempted a rebound but the early strength does not last long with the major market indices closing mixed on the session. The Dow closed the session with a gain of 32.50 points to 6,626.94. The PX added 0.83 points, finishing the session at 683.38. We still have no play on.
For the fourth consecutive week, the major market indices fell sharply. In the early going Friday, it seemed we might see a bounce with traders relieved that the jobs report wasn't worse. However, these gains failed to hold, although a late session rally left the Dow and SPX in positive territory. Nonetheless, all three indices ended the week below key support levels with technicians now searching data more than 12 years old to find the next support level. It's not pretty. 650 maybe?
The big story Friday was the employment situation report, which showed that nonfarm payrolls fall by 651,000 in line with expectations. However, data for December and January was revised lower by a total of 161,000 payrolls and the unemployment rose to a 25-year high at 8.1 percent. Job losses were found in every sector except for government hiring and education and health services!! In the past four months, more than 2.5 million jobs have been lost and these levels of job losses are expected to continue in the foreseeable future. This is not a good picture.
The moves down have been intense and prior to us getting on anything else we must see some end to this freefall.
Until next time.
On Friday the markets attempted a rebound but the early strength does not last long with the major market indices closing mixed on the session. The Dow closed the session with a gain of 32.50 points to 6,626.94. The PX added 0.83 points, finishing the session at 683.38. We still have no play on.
For the fourth consecutive week, the major market indices fell sharply. In the early going Friday, it seemed we might see a bounce with traders relieved that the jobs report wasn't worse. However, these gains failed to hold, although a late session rally left the Dow and SPX in positive territory. Nonetheless, all three indices ended the week below key support levels with technicians now searching data more than 12 years old to find the next support level. It's not pretty. 650 maybe?
The big story Friday was the employment situation report, which showed that nonfarm payrolls fall by 651,000 in line with expectations. However, data for December and January was revised lower by a total of 161,000 payrolls and the unemployment rose to a 25-year high at 8.1 percent. Job losses were found in every sector except for government hiring and education and health services!! In the past four months, more than 2.5 million jobs have been lost and these levels of job losses are expected to continue in the foreseeable future. This is not a good picture.
The moves down have been intense and prior to us getting on anything else we must see some end to this freefall.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 5:24 AM 
