Since the stock market bottomed in March of this year, it has been firing on all cylinders -- except for those in the auto industry who manufacture the most cylinders of course. This year has not been kind to them.

For months, many have been surprised at the rapid rise, given the level of unemployment. During this same period, Wall Streeters have been dancing up and down, looking forward to more bonuses.

As the number of unemployed has climbed and the period of same has lengthened, many have wondered how business could be improving during a time when the consumer (those still left) has transformed from spender to saver.

We got a bit of surprising news today, hearing that new jobless claims fell to 530,000 last week.

Going into today's announcement from the Department of Labor, analysts had been expecting to see an increase of 5,000 new jobless claims last week. This marks the third week in a row that we have seen new jobless claims fall.

There are 200 workers sitting-in at a Chicago factory that they claim has stiffed them. And President-elect Obama supports their goals. This raises many questions: Is the sit-in illegal? If so, is Obama supporting an illegal action? More importantly, is Obama inadvertently encouraging workers around the country to pursue similar tactics?

At issue here is Republic Windows and Doors, a Chicago manufacturer that laid off its 200 workers last week and has failed to assure them that it will pay them the severance and vacation money they earned. The workers have responded by sitting-in on the factory floor. Obama said, "The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they're absolutely right and understand that what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy," according to AP.

I have no legal training, however, it looks to me like a sit-in is a form of trespassing -- assuming that the workers are no longer employees of the company. (A VP of the worker's union said "We expected to go to jail.") My reading of Obama's comment suggests that he supports the workers' goals -- which is to get the money to which they're legally entitled -- while taking no position on the legality of their sit-in. The question is whether other aggrieved workers will miss this subtlety and view Obama's statement as an implicit endorsement of the workers' tactics.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) made a major tactical mistake by letting its machinists go on strike for weeks. It ended up giving the workers a good contract and, in the meantime, it shut down the company when its back orders for aircraft were at record levels. Of course, that upset a large number of the firm's customers who are waiting for the new fuel-efficient Dreamliner, which will be the new flagship of Boeing's fleet.

Management at Boeing does not seem to have learned a single thing from the last work stoppage and is risking another one that could further undermine its stock price and earnings.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "In an effort to ratchet up pressure on Boeing Co. negotiators, leaders of the union that represents about 21,000 of the company's white-collar engineers and technical workers said they will ask their members to authorize a strike in the event that the two sides are unable to agree on a new labor contract." Current contracts expire on December 1, so there is not much time.

Investors would think that, with such huge revenue coming in from the delivery of new planes over the next several years, that the company would do as much as possible to keep its earnings and credibility up with its largest customers intact. Management would rather get a few extra bucks in labor expense savings.

Maybe that is why Boeing's shares, at $43, are less than 50% of its 52-week high.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

After a 52-day strike, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has reached a tentative deal with its 27,000 member machinists union. Tentative details suggest that workers will get a 15% wage increase over three years, an $8,000 bonus over four years, and a freeze of medical costs at 2005 levels. Furthermore, the new contract limits the amount of work that can be outsourced and will last a year longer than the previous pact. But even though the contract has not been ratified, this is good news for Boeing and its workers.

Limiting outsourcing could be good for Boeing and the workers depending on how it's accomplished. One of the reasons for the delay in delivering its very popular 787 aircraft was that Boeing outsourced the majority of the design and manufacture of the components and later discovered that it was not doing enough to manage those subcontractors. As a result, Boeing suffered unpleasant surprises in its delivery schedule.

If Boeing and its machinists agreed to give the union a chance to bid on work under consideration to be outsourced, then both parties might be better off. That's because if the union offered a competitive price and excellent quality, Boeing would likely find it easier to manage its union workers than those of a subcontractor located half way around the world.

I'm not normally one for union-bashing, but I'm puzzled by organized labor's record of private equity-bashing. The New York Post reports that the two million member Service Employees International Union wants increased government oversight of the private equity industry, with a special emphasis on the various banks that are in desperate need of cash.

"The biggest buyout firms are used to gaming the system to turn a profit -- it's no surprise they want special rules now to take over another sector of our economy," SEIU president Andy Stern told the Post.

KKR and other buyout shops counter that the SEIU is trying to unionize employees at companies acquired by private equity, and is grasping at straws to drum up support.

That may be the case, but I can't imagine one has to do with the other. Employees should join unions (or not) because they feel (or don't feel) that their pay, job security and working conditions will benefit from membership. Bashing buyout firms would seem to be an irrelevant sideshow and a counterproductive one at that. Many union pension plans are large shareholders in banks and other firms that stand to benefit from private equity involvement, and they may be shooting their members in the foot by fighting macro issues like banking regulations that have absolutely nothing to do with their members' interests.

It was a publicity nightmare for the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS): Tinkerbell, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Minnie Mouse being handcuffed and hauled away from Disneyland in a police van.

32 costumed protesters were arrested for failing to obey a police order and traffic violations on Thursday. The protest was part of a labor dispute involving 2,300 workers at Disney's hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel.

The union's contract expired in February, and workers complain that the new offer from Disney management would make health care unaffordable and, according to the president of Unite Here Local 681, workers are comparable local hotels make $2-3 an hour more. You can read the details of the dispute here.

I can't imagine that stuff like this is good for traffic at Disneyland: imagine showing up for a day of fun rides with your family, only to have your 4-year old ask why Mickey and Goofy are being hauled off in handcuffs!

A Disney spokesman told the USA Today that "Publicity stunts are not productive and are extremely disruptive to the resort district."

But won't disrupting the resort district "encourage" Disney to meet its workers' demands? If so, that sounds productive to me!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 150 points (at 10:15 a.m.). I guess that it was to be expected as we woke up to news that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) downgraded investment banks. Wall Street is also worried about the outlook for tech stocks after both RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported quarterly results Wednesday, giving a tepid outlook.

Then, final revision of first quarter GDP were released an hour before the open, and while growth was revised upward to 1% from an anemic 0.6% original estimate, the components weren't very encouraging. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of GDP, grew by 1.1%, the smallest gain since the second quarter of 2001, which was during the last recession. Also, corporate profits after taxes fell 7.8%, a higher decline than previously estimated. Housing, as measured by residential fixed investment plunged by 24.6%.

Also, looking at inflation, the price index for gross domestic purchases, a closely watched measure of inflation, rose at a 3.6% rate, up 0.1 percentage point from the preliminary estimate. Excluding food and energy, the price index was up 2.3%, which is above the Fed's preferred range of around 1.5% to 2% for that index.

One bright spot, as it has been awhile now, is that exports rose 5.4%, which was much better than the estimate of 2.8 percent in May.

Moving to the labor markets, weekly initial claims, which were also reported at the same time, were unchanged. But -- and a big But it is -- the better indicator, four-week average of new jobless claims, was at the highest level since October 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

This post opens our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered. Watch for more Big Company, Small Town posts coming soon.

All across this great country of ours, small cities, towns, and villages have been built in the shadows of major companies that supply work for their local populations. It can be a wonderful situation that cultivates a special kind of community and a deep-seated local pride. However, it can also be a recipe for civic disaster, if the major supplier of a wage base in a locality goes out of business or leaves town. Such was the near disastrous fate of Park Falls, Wisconsin, not so long ago.

The city of Park Falls, which is Wisconsin's most geographically isolated city, was built around its paper mill. At its height, the mill helped to bring the population of the city to nearly 4,000 inhabitants. However, in 2006 the paper mill, which was operating at reduced capacity under ownership from out of state, was shut down almost without any prior notice. The result was immediate and deeply wrenching turmoil. Not only had the paper mill workers lost an excellent source of income, but the collateral damage was jarringly significant also. Loggers had no local market for their pulp wood. Dozens of family-feeding log trucks were idled. Private contractors who did various types of work for the mill were left with thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices. Local vendors, retailers, and support businesses almost immediately went slack.

What's good for Ford may also be good for General Motors and Chrysler, Canada-wise.

The Canadian Auto Workers have voted to ratify a three-year contract with Ford, a pact the union expects General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler to match, The Associated Press reported Monday.

The deal, which freezes wages and reduces vacation pay but avoids changes to base wages, was approved by 78% of the membership.

Ford (NYSE: F)'s shares fell 2 cents to $8.23 on the news during Monday morning trading.

Economist Richard Felson told BloggingStocks Monday the deal, in his interpretation, represents "a qualified win for both sides. The Canadian workers got most of what they wanted, which mainly was an avoidance of the two-tier wage system that Ford is implementing in the United States," Felson said. "But Ford also got the wage freeze and vacation changes critical to bringing Canadian labor costs down."

Further, while both GM and Chrysler, which are set to begin talks with the CAW, may initially view the Ford deal less-favorably, Felson said he expects both to negotiate similar deals with the CAW.

"The downside is GM and Chrysler accepting a deal that's slightly more generous than they'd want to offer," Felson said. "But the upside is avoiding a major production shut-down during a critical transition period for the automakers, as they adjust their fleets to compete better with more-efficient foreign vehicles."

In the April 23, Wall Street Journal, Senator Sherrod Brown, (D) Ohio, made a realistic assessment of current government trade policy and how it is diluting the strength of our country. I think that Senator Brown was just a bit gentle with his words, and understandably so when given his position. Suffice it to say that I agree with him for the most part, but he should have just cut to the chase. The American working class has been sold out. He also failed to make one critical point about NAFTA. It was his party and the guidance of Bill Clinton that navigated that document into law.

Partisan politics aside, I believe that current American trade standards are something we need to be ashamed of. As a free market capitalist, I have nothing against the survival of the fittest in the worlds of manufacturing and business. However, we're beholden to good sense to provide a level playing field and to maintain benchmark standards. In that regard, American workers have been shorted. Our trade deficit is a testament to the decline of the American Dream. It's a dream, while not referred to by that name, that resides in the hearts of workers the world over. Every parent wants their children to have a greater degree of opportunity and safety than they had.

Initial jobless claims fell by 21,000 to 336,000 for the week ended Dec. 29, below the 349,000 consensus estimate, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. Initial claims totaled 326,000 for the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the previous week's jobless claims were revised upward to 357,000, the highest weekly level since October 2005, from the 349,000 statistic announced last week.

Also, the four-week moving average dropped to 343,750 from 344,500. Economists view the four-week average as a better indicator of unemployment conditions, as it smooths-out anomalies for strikes, holidays, or other idiosyncratic events.

The number of continuing claims increased by 46,000 to 2.76 million for the week ended Dec. 22, the latest period for which figures were available.

Economic Analysis: This is a mixed bag of news; the current weekly jobless statistic dropped, but last week's statistic was revised higher. Meanwhile, the four-week moving average -- the average economists and analysts concentrate on -- remains at elevated levels and is a 'data point of concern' for the U.S. economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve will keep an eye on that four-week average: if it drifts above 350,000 and remains there, that would suggest a substantial softening of labor market conditions, and most likely, a slowing U.S. economy.

There is not much novel about it, but the idea may work. General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s NBC will begin airing re-runs from its cable operation, USA Network, in prime-time. This will let the parent network field programming at a very low cost while the industry's writers strike drags on. Some of the late-night programs like Jay Leno's show, have agreed to go back on the air without writers.

The approach may put greater strain on the writers to settle. Some of the USA shows are very popular. Monk and Psych are among the programs that will begin to air.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Until now, the networks had been expected to soon run out of fresh episodes of their most popular prime-time shows, forcing them to revert to unscripted fare such as reality and game shows." TV executives are worried that, without popular shows, their ad rates may fall and earnings could suffer.

If the networks field line-ups of cable programming, shows produced outside the U.S., and reality shows, the writers may have run out of leverage.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Initial jobless claims fell by 15,000 to 338,000 for the week ended Dec. 1, but the more-telling four-week moving average reached its highest level -- up 4,750 to 340,000 -- since October 2005, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday.

The 338,000 weekly statistic was slightly higher than the 335,000 consensus estimate.

Economists view the four-week average as a better indicator of unemployment conditions, as it smooths-out anomalies for strikes, holidays, or other idiosyncratic events.

The number of continuing claims decreased by 59,000 to 2.6 million for the week ended Nov. 24, the latest period for which figures were available.

Economic Analysis: The four-week moving average -- the average economists and analysts concentrate on -- continues to move higher and remains a 'data point of concern' for the U.S. economy. Joblessness is not high, but job growth is not high either. Further, although not above the more-problematic 350,000-level, the rising four-week moving average suggests that the job market continues to soften, something the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep an eye on, given the historically strong correlation between employment growth and sustainable economic growth.

Performances of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas resumed today at 11 A.M. after a Manhattan judge ordered that the show must go on! The show is strictly a holiday affair, with performances set to end January 6. Producers cited a special contract between the show and Jujamcyn Theaters, and argued that the strike didn't effect their production.

But this is just a single victory for producers, who are still losing millions in revenue from the strike that centers on how many stagehands a show must hire. While the stagehands union is certainly not the blue collar, middle American union that most of us think of when we hear "organized labor," this is an interesting case. To some, the efforts by the union to require that producers hire more stagehands than they feel is necessary is indicative of how unions hinder business.

But to others, millionaire producers depriving stagehands of their jobs is Scrooge-like.