S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX
| Value 186.18 | Change -0.80 | % Change -0.4% |
MLPs are back on defense, the index is down 1½ to the 234s at a 6 week low. The Dow Jones REIT Index also slipped 1½ but has been behaving better in the last month. Junk bond funds were off, Treasuries are back in demand. The yield on the 10 year Treasury bond fell 4 basis points to 3.34%, its low in the last 3+ months.
Alerian MLP Index --- 2 months
Dow Jones REIT Index --- 2 months
10-Year Treasury Yld Index - 6 months
Oil is lower, bringing it to a 10% decline from its yearly highs.
| CLV09.NYM | ...Crude Oil Oct 09 | ...67.81 | ... 0.24 .......(0.4%) |
Fewer private sector jobs were lost in Aug than in Jul & companies planned fewer layoffs, suggesting modest improvement in the labor market. Employers cut 298K jobs last month beating the 360K job losses in Jul. However expectations were for 250K job losses. The cumulative losses rose to 1.07M between Jan - Aug, 60% higher than in the prior year. A good sign is that productivity rose at a 6.6% rate in Q2, faster than the initial 6.4% estimate & the biggest increase since 2003.
•Companies in U.S. Reduced Payrolls by More-Than-Forecast 298,000, ADP Says
Following yesterday's sell-off at Wells Fargo (WFC) on speculation about their financial condition, they announced they plan to repay "shortly" the $25B advanced to them from TARP without having to sell additional stock. The stock rose 29¢. With the Wachovia portfolio of loans, WFC is the largest US home loan lender. They said, "costs tied to troubled loans may be reaching a peak, and loss rates on auto loans in particular are stabilizing." Uh huh!
•Wells Fargo Will Repay TARP `Shortly' Without Raising Equity, Stumpf Says
Wells Fargo --- 1 year
Economic news continues mixed, including something to make anybody happy. The big Aug jobs report comes on Fri & is expected to show some improvement but no dramatic changes. In the meantime, more traders are taking a long weekend holiday.
Dow Jones Industrials --- 2 months
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