A lot of economic data hit the tape today, and it all tells the same story: It’s ugly out there. While initialjobless claims dipped to 461,000 from 477,000 a week earlier, continuing claims rose to 3.711 million from 3.671million, the most since June 2003. Net inflows into U.S. assets also came in at just $14 billion in August, well belowforecasts for a reading of $30 billion.
Meanwhile, industrial production tanked 2.8% in September, much worse than the 0.8% decline that was expected and thesingle-worst reading in ANY month going back to 1974. And the Philadelphia Fed index plunged to -37.5 from 3.8 a monthearlier. That was well below the -10 reading that was forecast and the worst reading since October 1990.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Mike, I’m a Safe Money Subscriber, and a COS subscriber. With this round of bailouts, do you expect bank stock prices to be stabilized for long? Some of the banks you guys pinpointed at being at great risk were Suntrust, BAC,
HSBC,Citi. Are these banks in for another rude awakening, or have they been saved? I heard rumours of the govt of China interceding on HSBCs behalf. Would this save HSBC, or are all of these banks falling into a hole that noone can save them from?
Regards, Derek Sloan
Mike – I appreciate how you are sharing your knowledge of what is happening in the markets – by using some wisdom right now I think I can not only avert the chaos but use the situation to benefit. It has a calming effect on me ,
Thank You.