Dow Sinks 134 on Heels of Anemic Job Report

[Sandpiper]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040109/wall_street_56.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- A bad jobs report Friday halted Wall Street's 2004 rally, sending stocks sharply lower as investors cashed in profits from the market's recent advance. Regulatory problems for IBM and downgrades of telecommunications stocks also pulled prices lower.
ADVERTISEMENT


Barry Berman, head trader for Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee, noted that the market held up relatively well through the day despite the early morning Labor Department report of anemic job growth in December.

But late in the day, "investors threw in the towel ... and everyone was taking profits," Berman said.

[RamboLiberal]

1. Bush boom may be more like the Bush whimper

eom

[cthrumatrix]

18. it's about time for some pullback...HOWEVER, don't get too bearish here

we have an election year going on...and you can see the force that propped up this market.

Don't think that this thing can't zig zag for the entire year so shrub can claim success...

I'm definitely concerned about the job numbers...and if you read...they REVISED the previous 4 months by an additional 66,000 jobs DOWNWARD.

So can we believe these numbers and how they are used for the market...I don't think so.

My bet is ...they are going to "dress this pig (stock market) in pink dress all year".

[TrogL]

2. Taking profits, or rats leaving a sinking ship

Given what the greenback's doing, they'd best be buying Euros or loonies.

[rumguy]

3. but I thought the economy was back on track?

LOL

[pinniped]

17. Ya me too. I was just about to charge a $150,000 watercraft on my Visa.

n/t

[Skittles]

4. let us all be reminded

that our dipshit "president" took finally took responsibility for the economy recently, when he touted its looming "recovery".

[RamboLiberal]

5. Anyone got his recent quotes about jobs being created?

I'm heading home from work at the moment so I don't have time to look.

Love to see the words to hang AWOL from his own petard.

[ozone_man]

6. One of these days it's going to be a lot more

than that 134 points. The $500B/year lipstick job on this pig will wear off soon and the Bush recovery will be exposed.

[gristy]

7. I heard that reported on NPR

Here's from the article:

Before the market opened, the Labor Department said the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in December, but that companies added only 1,000 new jobs in an anemic holiday-hiring performance.

Analysts had been expecting a gain of 100,000 to 150,000.

Although December's unemployment rate was the lowest in 14 months, it reached that level because fewer people were looking for work, the department said. More than 300,000 people gave up their search for jobs and dropped out of the pool of available workers, the department said.


So unemployment dropped. Not because anyone was added to payrolls, but because 300,000 people simply gave up looking for work. :wtf:

[Robbien]

9. Even that is only half the truth

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Total civilian workforce dropped 309,000 people
Total unemployed dropped 255,000 people

So we lost 564,000 people who were being paid in some form. Most of these ended up in the next category

People not in the workforce (people who gave up) increased by 538,000 people.

[Robbien]

8. There is a bear in the economic ointment

That was the cbs marketwatch headline yesterday.

Plenty more bears today.

[Ilsa]

10. I'd hate to see the wealthy making out like bandits in the market

while the unemployed lose their life's savings just trying to keep a roof over their heads and "food on their family."

[teryang]

11. Media reaction interesting

The pundits kept asking for the last two days, "what's so important about this report anyway?" To which one naive commentator said, "well it is the desert island indicator; if you are on a desert island it is the one most informative report on the state of the economy that you would like to have." Today's latest spin is that the report is off base, and that it doesn't reflect the reality of the contemporary economy, in that the self employed are not reflected and although many jobs are exported we benefit from that in some employment related fashion which has been alluded to but never sufficiently explained.

To tell the truth, as many times as this subject has been visited here on DU, the method of compiling the data is still not clear to me. Are the differences between the household survey and the employers report harmonized? It would seem to me that the household survey would report the self employed, and that the media excuses for this unfavorable report aren't justified.

[mrdmk]

12. The media likes Mr. Bush Jr.

The bottom line is the job market sucks. There is money being turned around in this economy, never the less everything remains tight. Somewhere I have read this economy started to develop in the late 1970’s, and continues to this day. It is also funny that Wall Street is down in reaction to a poor job market report.

[Kinkistyle]

13. Wait till monday.

Market is usually more upbeat on Fridays because people are looking forward to the weekend. Monday could see a larger plop.

[dusty64]

14. But, but, but,

what of our "skyrocketing recovery" thanks to our "glorious leader" and his extreme rightwing "grownup" agenda. We can't continue to have the truth leak out of the "liberal" media.

[The Zanti Regent]

15. Remember the words of Andrew Mellon

"In a depression, wealth flows back to its' natural owners!"

[revcarol]

16. Don't you just love their headlines?

Anyone else(D) as President, the headline would have read "DISASTROUS" jobs report!!

Keep the little sheeple in line. Can't have them actually READING the article.