STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 10 January 2014

[Tansy_Gold]

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 10 January 2014[font color=black][/font]

SMW for 9 January 2014

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 9 January 2014
[center][font color=red]
Dow Jones 16,444.76 -17.98 (-0.11%)
[font color=green]S&P 500 1,838.13 +0.64 (0.03%)
[font color=red]Nasdaq 4,156.19 -9.42 (-0.23%)


[font color=green]10 Year 2.97% -0.01 (-0.34%)
[font color=black]30 Year 3.88% 0.00 (0.00%) [font color=black]


[center][/font]

[HR width=85%]

[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/center]

[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]

[center]

[/center]

[HR width=95%]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Economic Blogs:[/font][/font]
[center]
The Big Picture
Financial Sense
Calculated Risk
Naked Capitalism
Credit Writedowns
Brad DeLong
Bonddad
Atrios
goldmansachs666
The Stand-Up Economist
The Automatic Earth
Wall Street on Parade
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Essential Reading:[/font][/font]
[center]
Matt Taibi: Secret and Lies of the Bailout


[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]

[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Videos:[/font][/font]
[center]
Charlie Rose talks with Roubini
Charlie Rose talks with Krugman
William Black: This Economic Disaster
Bill Moyers with Kevin Drum and David Corn
[/center]

[div]
[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent
10/26/12 UPDATE: Former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta sentenced to two years in federal prison. He will, of course, appeal. . .
11/20/12 Hedge fund manager Matthew Martoma charged with insider trading at SAC Capital Advisors, and prosecutors are looking at Martoma's boss, Steven Cohen, for possible involvement.
02/14/13 Gilbert Lopez, former chief accounting officer of Stanford Financial Group, and former controller Mark Kuhrt sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for their roles in Allen Sanford's $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
03/29/13 Michael Sternberg, portfolio mgr at SAC Capital, arrested in NYC, charged with conspiracy and securities fraud. Pled not guilty and freed on $3m bail.
04/04/13 Matthew Marshall Taylor,fmr Goldman Sachs trader arrested, charged by CFTC w/defrauding his employer on $8BN futures bet "by intentionally concealing the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated."
04/04/13 Matthew Taylor admits guilt, makes plea bargain. Sentencing set for 26 June; faces up to 20 years in prison but will likely only see 3-4 years. Says, "I am truly sorry."
04/11/13 Ex-KPMG LLP partner Scott London charged by federal prosecutors w/passing inside tips to a friend in exchange for cash, jewelry, and concert tickets; expected to plead guilty in May.
08/01/13 Fabrice Tourré convicted on six counts of security fraud, including "aiding and abetting" his former employer, Goldman Sachs
08/14/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, and conspiracy in connection with JP Morgan's "London Whale" trade.
08/19/13 Phillip A. Falcone, manager of hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, agrees to admit to "wrongdoing" in market manipulation. Will banned from securities industry for 5 years and pay $18MM in disgorgement and fines.
09/16/13 Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout officially indicted on charges associated with "London Whale" trade.








[HR width=95%]


[center]

[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]

[Demeter]

1. I have no hope. I see no future.

If we have to wait for all these deluded, insane people to die off naturally, it will be too late.

It's claustrophobia. Locked into a house with a kid for a month, only let out to work...while wrapped in three layers of insulating clothing...while fighting a virus...

[Tansy_Gold]

2. .

but you knew that....

[jtuck004]

7. He says he is quite sure that if you let him in to lay next to you, it would make you

feel much better.




Wanted me to send you his best wishes...

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww n/t

[Demeter]

21. Puppy therapy got me through a lot of it

but he's busy with his family today, and I have to go out.

[Demeter]

28. Aries horrorscope

You have been running on overdrive and may be growing tired of the hectic pace. Now that the Moon is in sensible Taurus, you can retreat from the rat race and reconsider the assumptions that led you to over-committing your resources. However, no one expects you to set overly ambitious goals or attempt to accomplish the impossible. For now, it's more about just being practical. Weed out unnecessary objectives so you don't have to spread yourself so thin. Greater efficiency can bring you a different kind of satisfaction.

No amount of efficiency can help...3 extra pair of hands might.

[xchrom]

3. CHINA'S DECEMBER EXPORTS SLOW, IMPORTS ACCELERATE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_TRADE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-01-10-02-15-59

BEIJING (AP) -- China's export growth slowed in December while imports accelerated, possibly helping to temper fears of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Exports rose 4.3 percent to $207.7 billion, slowing from November's 12.7 percent expansion, trade data showed Friday. Imports rose 8.3 percent to $182.1 billion, up from the previous month's 7.6 percent.

Stronger exports might be a sign China's domestic demand is relatively strong despite concerns a modest economic recovery is weakening.

China's economic growth tumbled to a two-decade low of 7.5 percent in the second quarter. It rebounded to 7.8 percent the following quarter but private sector analysts say that recovery is likely to fade. The Cabinet in late December said it expected 2013's full-year growth to be 7.6 percent, which would be the weakest performance since 1999.

[xchrom]

4. The “middle class” myth: Here’s why wages are really so low today

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/30/the_middle_class_myth_heres_why_wages_are_really_so_low_today/



Let me tell you the story of an “unskilled” worker in America who lived better than most of today’s college graduates. In the winter of 1965, Rob Stanley graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, on the city’s Far South Side. Pay rent, his father told him, or get out of the house. So Stanley walked over to Interlake Steel, where he was immediately hired to shovel taconite into the blast furnace on the midnight shift. It was the crummiest job in the mill, mindless grunt work, but it paid $2.32 an hour — enough for an apartment and a car. That was enough for Stanley, whose main ambition was playing football with the local sandlot all-stars, the Bonivirs.

Stanley’s wages would be the equivalent of $17.17 today — more than the “Fight For 15” movement is demanding for fast-food workers. Stanley’s job was more difficult, more dangerous and more unpleasant than working the fryer at KFC (the blast furnace could heat up to 2,000 degrees). According to the laws of the free market, though, none of that is supposed to matter. All that is supposed to matter is how many people are capable of doing your job. And anyone with two arms could shovel taconite. It required even less skill than preparing dozens of finger lickin’ good menu items, or keeping straight the orders of 10 customers waiting at the counter. Shovelers didn’t need to speak English. In the early days of the steel industry, the job was often assigned to immigrants off the boat from Poland or Bohemia.

“You’d just sort of go on automatic pilot, shoveling ore balls all night,” is how Stanley remembers the work.

Stanley’s ore-shoveling gig was also considered an entry-level position. After a year in Vietnam, he came home to Chicago and enrolled in a pipefitters’ apprenticeship program at Wisconsin Steel.

So why did Rob Stanley, an unskilled high school graduate, live so much better than someone with similar qualifications could even dream of today? Because the workers at Interlake Steel were represented by the United Steelworkers of America, who demanded a decent salary for all jobs. The workers at KFC are represented by nobody but themselves, so they have to accept a wage a few cents above what Congress has decided is criminal.

[xchrom]

5. Today's Jobs Report Plays Right Into One Of The Most Important Stories Happening In The Market

http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-report-fed-testing-2014-1

A quick note on why today's Jobs Report matters.

The monthly Non-Farm Payrolls number is always an exciting number, in part because jobs are the economic datapoint that people care about the most. The unemployment rate (and the pace of job creation more broadly) is also extremely important to the Fed which has a mandate of promoting stable employment through monetary policy.

This brings us to one of the most important stories in the market right now, which is that traders are testing the Fed.

Matthew Boesler has written a ton about this, but the basic gist is that traders are increasingly placing bets that the Fed will do its first rate hike prior to when the Fed currently indicates that it will. In other words, the Fed has indicated through language that it will keep rates essentially at zero for a long time. But traders are thinking that with the economy finally breaking out, the Fed will be forced to raise rates sooner.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-report-fed-testing-2014-1#ixzz2pzbIaMdg

[Demeter]

23. Breaking out....

in smallpox, maybe.

[xchrom]

6. Millionaires Now Have The Majority In Congress

http://www.businessinsider.com/millionaires-congress-2014-1

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a majority—268 of the 534 members of Congress—had an average net worth in 2012 of $1 million or more, marking the first time millionaires held a majority in Congress.
The previous year, only 257 members had millionaire status.

The median net worth for the lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May 2013 filing was $1,008,767, up from the previous year's $966,000.

Of course Congress—and especially the Senate—has long been a wealthy club. But millionaires have always been in the minority. The Center for Responsive Politics said that this is a "watershed" moment and shows how removed Congress has become from the concerns of most, nonmillionaire Americans.



Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101324444#ixzz2pzbwbRAd

[DemReadingDU]

14. Then many become lobbyists

and become multi-millionaires

[xchrom]

8. China 'overtakes' US as world’s largest goods trader

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25678415

China has claimed that it is "very likely" that it overtook the US as the world's top trading nation, a title the US has held for decades.

According to the latest data, China's total trade grew at an annual rate of 7.6% to $4.16tn (£2.5tn) last year.

The US is yet to release it full-year figures, but its trade for the first 11 months of 2013 totalled $3.5tn.

China became the world's biggest goods exporter in 2009. Its imports have also risen amid an expansion in its economy.

[xchrom]

9. Covered Bond Shock Forces Denmark to Devise Plan B for Banks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-09/covered-bond-shock-forces-denmark-to-examine-plan-b-for-banks.html


Denmark is mapping out a new battle plan to protect $555 billion in mortgage bonds after Europe’s bank regulator proposed rules that threaten to trigger a sell-off of the securities.

As Denmark urges the European Commission to ignore a plan by the European Banking Authority that covered bonds be treated as second-class liquid assets, the mortgage industry is focusing on a clause that offers special treatment to nations with low government debt levels.

“This is Plan B,” Morten Frederiksen, head of regulatory affairs at the Danish Bankers Association in Copenhagen, said in a phone interview. Ensuring the EU Commission ignores the EBA’s proposal outright is “our main focus. But of course, if the decision doesn’t go our way, we have to look at alternatives.”

Denmark’s mortgage industry was blindsided in November, when it emerged the London-based EBA would ignore the findings of its own technical study, which showed covered bonds are as liquid as government debt.

[xchrom]

10. Asian Stocks Head for Second Weekly Drop Before U.S. Jobs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/asian-stocks-fall-before-u-s-payrolls-china-trade-data.html

Asia’s benchmark stock index headed for a second weekly decline, after swinging between gains and losses today as data showed China’s trade surplus narrowed and investors awaited a report on U.S. payrolls.

Luk Fook Holdings (International) Ltd. (590), a jewelry retailer, slumped 11 percent in Hong Kong after its rating was cut at Credit Suisse Group AG on slowing sales momentum. Mitsubishi Materials Corp., which processes metals, dropped 1.6 percent in Tokyo as it said it will halt a plant’s operation after an explosion. Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co., which has the distribution rights in Japan and China for a liver-disease drug developed by Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc., jumped 17 percent after a clinical trial proved successful.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1 percent to 139.07 as of 5:30 p.m. in Tokyo, headed for a 0.9 percent decline this week. A U.S. Labor Department report today is projected to show American employers added more jobs in 2013 than at any point in the past eight years. China’s export growth trailed estimates in December while import gains beat economists’ projections, government data showed today.

“A lot of weight now falls on the official non-farm payrolls reading, which is due out later today,” Stan Shamu, a Melbourne-based market strategist at IG Ltd., said by e-mail. “All this positive data continues to support the argument that perhaps the U.S. economy is ready for a rapid, measured winding back of stimulus.”

[DemReadingDU]

15. A lot of weight now falls on the official non-farm payrolls

Last edited Fri Jan 10, 2014, 10:34 AM - Edit history (1)

Huh???

Do foreign markets always rise and fall based on what occurs in America? Wouldn't foreign markets primarily rise and fall based on what occurs in their own country?

[xchrom]

18. i don't know -- maybe miss demeter will chime in. nt

[Demeter]

24. It's gambling, DRDU, nothing else

greed and fear, fear and greed...reading the tea leaves of the artificial, totally non-real statistics and betting which way the chips will fly. Will it be bulls or bears, or blood in the market?

It has NOTHING to do with the economy you and I experience, nothing at all...except we pay for this foolishness in taxes, wage and benefits cuts, and inflation.

[DemReadingDU]

30. Sure, it's gambling

But the media portrays the world as gambling on whatever the U.S. does. Surely other countries gamble on what the Chinese do, or Japanese, or maybe even the Greeks, French and Brits.

[Demeter]

31. Gambling on whatever the US banksters do, not on the people

and the banksters love to jerk them around. More coin falls out of the pockets, that way.

[DemReadingDU]

32. It feels like a circle jerk

Foreign banksters gamble on U.S., U.S. gambles on foreign banksters. The insiders gamble on each other.

But, the media never says the U.S. markets are up or down depending what the foreign markets do. It is always the foreign markets are up or down depending what the U.S. markets do.

[xchrom]

11. Philippines Adds to Record Sovereign Debt Sales in Asia

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/philippines-adds-to-record-sovereign-debt-sales-in-asia.html

The Philippines sold $1.5 billion of bonds, adding to the busiest week for Asian sovereigns on record as slowing U.S. stimulus threatens to increase funding costs.

The nation, Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy, sold 10-year bonds to yield 4.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That brings total dollar-denominated issuance by Asian governments since Jan. 6 to $6.5 billion, the most in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1999. Indonesia and Sri Lanka sold $5 billion earlier this week.

Asian governments are looking to borrow after the Federal Reserve announced it would taper record stimulus, increasing the yield on benchmark U.S. debt. Interest rates on 10-year Treasuries have risen 1.34 percentage points since May, when the central bank indicated it was considering trimming bond purchases. The average cost of dollar funds for the region’s sovereigns rose as high as 5.83 percent in September, up from an average 4 percent in 2012, JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes show. Borrowers now pay 5.16 percent.

“Philippine authorities are trying to lock in current yields,” said Desmond Soon, a Singapore-based fund manager at Western Asset Management Co., which oversees $442.7 billion globally. “There is expectation U.S. Treasury yields will go higher over the course of the year.”

[xchrom]

12. Pot Shares Rally 21% to 1,700% as Speculators See Green

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-09/pot-shares-rally-21-to-1-700-as-speculators-see-green.html

They’ve got high hopes.

Bruce Perlowin, the chief executive officer of Hemp Inc. (HEMP) who has seen his stock soar 205 percent to 8 cents in the last three days, says investors are suddenly bidding up marijuana companies because they want to find “the next Microsoft.” Robert Frichtel, his Advanced Cannabis Solutions Inc. up 144 percent after posting $455 in sales last quarter, said “euphoria” is driving gains that in some cases top 1,700 percent.

“The demand for marijuana is insatiable,” said Perlowin, a once-jailed smuggler who filed last month to sell 12 million shares of the Las Vegas-based company even as its market value holds at 99.97 percent below the world’s biggest software maker. “You have a feeding frenzy for the birth of a new industry.”

[Demeter]

25. This is insane

[xchrom]

16. Trio of weaker data reports takes shine off UK recovery

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/uk-britain-economy-manufacturing-idUKLNEA0900820140110

(Reuters) - Britain's economic recovery got a "reality check" on Friday when data showed weaker-than-expected manufacturing output, a sharp fall in the construction sector, and a slowdown in retail sales growth.

Economists said growth in the fourth quarter might now struggle to keep up the pace which has made Britain one of the fastest-growing economies among the world's rich nations.

Official data was not seen matching up with strong industry surveys.

Output for both manufacturing and industrial production was flat month-on-month in November, and October's increases were revised down, the Office for National Statistics said.

[xchrom]

17. Exclusive - Iran, Russia negotiating big oil-for-goods deal

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/uk-iran-russia-oil-exclusive-idUKBREA090DN20140110


(Reuters) - Iran and Russia are negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5 billion a month that would let Iran lift oil exports substantially, in defiance of Western sanctions that helped force Tehran to agree a preliminary deal to end its nuclear programme.

Russian and Iranian sources close to the barter negotiations said final details were in discussion for a deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.

"Good progress is being made at the moment with strong chances of success," said a Russian source. "We are discussing the details and the date of signing a deal depends on those details." The Kremlin declined comment.

"Our desire is to sign the deal as soon as possible," said a senior Iranian official, who declined to be named. "Our officials are discussing the matter with the Russians and hopefully it will be inked soon, regardless of whether we can reach a (nuclear) agreement in Geneva."

[xchrom]

19. Brand Expansion: China's Race to Conquer World Markets

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/chinese-brands-expanding-into-world-markets-a-942094.html


The name Haier, a leading Chinese brand for household goods, originates from Liebherr, the German company that set up a joint venture with a Chinese company almost three decades ago. Liebherr taught its partner to build modern fridges. It needed to, because 20 percent of the Chinese manufacturer's output at the time was faulty.

Haier boss Zhang Ruimin started out by handing his surprised workers sledgehammers to destroy all the malfunctioning fridges they had made. The shock therapy worked. The state-owned business started to expand its market share in China, where it acquired many smaller competitors. Then it went international, and now it has an 8 percent share of the world market for household appliances.

The Chinese brand (its advertising slogan is "Haier and Higher&quot is well established in Germany as well. The group has a research center in Nuremberg that develops dishwashers for the European market. It bought a fridge factory from Meneghetti in Italy and is building a plant in Poland -- due to go into operation in June -- in cooperation with a partner. Haier has achieved what many companies from emerging economies aim to do: The company from the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao has established itself as a global consumer brand. It has become a serious competitor for Western companies, even in their home markets.

"If a country has no global brand, it can't be on top," says Haier boss Zhang, inspiring other Chinese CEOs to follow his example.

[xchrom]

20. Economic Health: Has Greece Turned a Corner?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/reforming-greece-takes-over-eu-council-presidency-a-942097.html

Perhaps it is just a meaningless detail resulting from the inauguration of a new government in Berlin. Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, the Berlin official in charge of aid to Greece, has been moved to a new office in the Development Ministry -- just down the hall from offices dedicated to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A mere coincidence? Is Greece -- a full member of the European Union and of the euro zone -- a developing country?
Certainly not, but as of Jan. 1, the location of Fuchtel's new quarters seems even more unfortunate. At the beginning of the year, Greece took over the rotating European Council presidency, meaning that it has taken the helm of the 28-member EU for the next six months. Europe is now being led by a country that in the spring of 2010 plunged the European currency union into the deepest crisis in its history, a country that has been saved from collapse by two gigantic aid packages and a debt haircut for private creditors.

Many in Brussels believe that Athens will need an additional €1.5 to 2 billion ($2 to 2.7 billion) this year and perhaps as much as €10 billion in 2015.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has pledged that Greece's leadership will mark a presidency of "hope" -- a word he applies to his own country, which, he says, brings a "positive balance" into the six-month position of prestige. But it has often been the case that good news from Greece is coupled with the next set of demands -- such as the current request for a renewed debt reduction. Such a move would hit European taxpayers hard, particularly those in Germany.

[Demeter]

26. Turned a corner into a dead end, maybe

Greece is devolving, not developing.

[xchrom]

22. Super Subs: The German Defense Industry Discovers Asia

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/germany-s-defense-industry-turns-to-asia-for-business-a-942287.html

The special fascination of ThyssenKrupp's new Type 218SG submarine is not immidiately apparent. It only becomes clear at the sight of the delicate, detailed engineering at its stern. That's where the "air independent propulsion system" is installed, connected directly with a gearless Permasyn motor. Built to glide through the sea almost noiselessly, the submarine is quieter and more durable than any other conventional model.

With fuel-cell drive and lithium-ion batteries, such a submarine can stay deployed at sea for more than 80 days and spend four weeks at a time under the surface.

These are ideal capabilities for a war machine built to function in the depths of seemingly endless waters, over routes that can be navigated without interruption for longer than ever before. It is a design suitable for the largest of all oceans: the Pacific.

At the end of November, Singapore, an authoritarian city-state on the edge of the crisis regions of the West Pacific, ordered the first two Type 218SG submarines to be released by German firm ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The custom-designed machines are to be delivered to the Singapore Navy by 2020. The deal cost the country €1.6 billion ($2.18 billion), which will go directly into the German economy.

[xchrom]

27. Payrolls in U.S. Rise Less Than Forecast; Jobless Rate at 6.7%

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/payrolls-in-u-s-rise-less-than-forecast-jobless-rate-at-6-7-.html

Payrolls in December increased at the slowest pace since January 2011, indicating a pause in the recent strength of the U.S. labor market that may have reflected the effects of bad weather.

The 74,000 gain in payrolls, less than the most pessimistic projection in a Bloomberg survey, followed a revised 241,000 advance the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 90 economists called for an increase of 197,000. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, the lowest since October 2008, as more people left the labor force.

More than a quarter million Americans were not at work because of inclement weather, the most for any December since 1977, the Labor Department said. Employers may be awaiting further evidence that the economy is accelerating before they step up the pace of hiring.

Weaker payrolls suggest “maybe we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves in the belief the economy’s momentum is stronger than it really is,” Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit, said before the report. Price was the second-best forecaster of monthly payrolls in the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “It could be that the economy and labor market are improving, but just not as much as we thought.”

[xchrom]

29. Out of the Abyss: Looking for Lessons in Iceland's Recovery

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/financial-recovery-of-iceland-a-case-worth-studying-a-942387.html

What should one expect from a country in which the sentence, "What an asshole!" is a compliment? Icelanders say "asshole," or "rassgat," when they tousle a child's hair or greet friends, and they mean it to be friendly.

While trudging through a lava field within view of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, the guide says: "Iceland is the asshole of the world." That, too, is a positive statement. It's also a geological metaphor. In Iceland, which lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and thus on the dividing line of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, the earth has a tendency to relieve itself through various geysers, volcanoes and hot springs.

The island, an unlikely geological accident, has existed for some 18 million years, but has only been inhabited for 1,100 years. A pile of lava pushed out of the Atlantic that could eventually disappear again, it's affectionately called "The Rock" by residents. Icelanders were traditionally fishermen and farmers until they decided to turn their country into a casino for global capital around the turn of the millennium.

But now they have returned to fishing, and gladly talk about their journey back to financial health. SPIEGEL spoke with an investor, a finance minister and a fisherman, in addition to an economist who says apologetically: "Icelanders are just daredevils." And then there was a sex and knitting expert who says she believes Iceland has "found its way back to itself."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

33. ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report {01/09/2014}

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20140005.htm

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending January 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 330,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 345,000. The 4-week moving average was 349,000, a decrease of 9,750 from the previous week's revised average of 358,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending December 28, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 28 was 2,865,000, an increase of 50,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,815,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,872,250, an increase of 18,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,853,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 486,033 in the week ending January 4, an increase of 34,384 from the previous week. There were 557,724 initial claims in the comparable week in 2013.
....

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 21 was 4,193,749, a decrease of 265,067 from the previous week. There were 5,356,419 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2012.

== == == ==

Good morning, Freepers and DUers alike. I ask you to put aside your differences long enough to read this post. Following that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

The word "initial" is important. The report does not count all claims, just the new ones filed this week.

Note: The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2007 forward, along with the resulting seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised. These revised historical values, as well as the seasonal adjustment factors that will be used through calendar year 2012, can be accessed at the bottom of the following link: http://www.oui.doleta.gov/press/2012/032912.asp