Economic Journal - Monday, 4/9/2012

US stocks traded sharply lower this morning after disappointing jobs data that hit on Friday when the market was closed for Good Friday holiday.  Stock futures fell on Friday after the Labor dept. reported that just 120,000 jobs were created in March, the fewest in 5 months.  Nonfarm payrolls fell short of expectations as analysts estimated 210,000 jobs to be added in March.  It was the first time since November that job growth was below 200,000.  The market responded negatively to this data on Monday, sending all 3 major indices, the DOW, Nasdaq, and S&P500 down 1% or more.  In other parts of the world, China reports consumer prices climbed 3.6% in March from a year ago, exceeding the 3.3% rise that was expected.  Inflation increased from February’s 3.2%, but slowed based on the January/February average thus far of 3.9%.  Asian markets were down 1%.  In company news, AOL shares jump 43% after an agreement to sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft in a $1.056 billion deal.  Oil prices fell 1.95% at 7:00am pacific time to 101.30.  Gold was up 0.99% to 1646.20.  The US dollar was up across the board.  30 yr. mortgage rates fell slightly to 3.96% and the 10 yr. treasury yield also fell to 2.04%.  The CBOE volatility index jumped 12.46% to 18.78.