Good news! The Labor Department reported that initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 33,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis to 521,000, the lowest level since January. The four week moving average of new claims fell 9,000 to 539,750 last week.
Good news #2! Nearly 80 of retailers beat expectations with sales increases. Ken Perkins of Retail Metrics said: 'I think the consumer is dipping their toe back into the discretionary waters right now, but just their toe."
In a separate report, the Commerce Department reported the US wholesalers' inventories fell for the 12th consecutive month in August and that sales recorded their largest rise in more than a year.
The number of people collecting long term unemployment fell by 72,000. However this number is unreliable because these may be people who have exhausted their benefits.
This double whammy of falling initial claims for unemployment and an uptick in retail sales sparked a rally on Wall Street. At noon EDT the Dow is up about 84 points. The Dow has been moving up smartly for the past three days and is approaching its all time recovery high.
Do you believe that the Dow will make a new recovery high?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-08-2009 @ 6:31PM
al coholic said...
The Market is ridiculously overpriced. What possible reason can there be for the Dow to be over 50% higher than it was only months ago? There is way too much uncertainty about the future right now. This has to be one of the biggest sucker rallies ever. Just my opinion.