(As of 7:00 am pacific)
Jobless claims dropped to the
lowest level in 4 years surprising analysts, while the stock market has taken a
ho-hum approach with only a small to moderate gain. The dollar is down significantly against most
currencies while oil and gold are up, along with most other commodities. It looks like, but doesn’t feel like a
‘risk-on’ scenario. There is a lot of
skepticism among investors waiting for direction from earnings season. Import prices were up last month. Mortgage interest rates have ticked slightly
high, but are still near historic lows.
PC shipments are down significantly this year as the explosion of Tablet
Devices seems to have cut into market share.
From global reaction to US claims numbers, it would seem that the market
will cast off its skepticism (at least for today) and move forward with a
strong advance.
