It's The Economy Stupid: Market Close

The markets up!  Dow finished above 15000, so all is good in the world.  Well, maybe not so much.

 

Decline in firings helped boost Consumer Confidence in U.S. economy.  Applications for unemployment benefits declined last week and Americans’ views of the economy were the brightest since early 2008 on the heels of a housing market recovery and higher stock prices.  Jobless claims fell 11,000 in the week ended June 1 to 346,000. Sentiment about the state of the economy improved to the best level since January 2008, helping keep the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index at minus 29.7, close to a five-year high.  Waning job dismissals, rising property values and higher stock prices this year will help underpin household spending and allow the economy to withstand budget cuts that are slowing growth this quarter. At the same time, the expansion would benefit more from bigger job and wage gains, and figures tomorrow are projected to show limited improvement in the pace of hiring.

    

Of course, ebbing overseas demand for American-made goods also helps explain why U.S. companies are limiting payroll growth. A report today showed German factory orders fell more in April than economists projected. Bookings, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, decreased 2.3 percent.

 

Meanwhile, employers in the U.S. added 165,000 jobs for a second month in May, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey before tomorrow’s Labor Department report. Jobless claims, which track weekly firings, need to fall before job growth, measured by the monthly payrolls report, can accelerate.  Household wealth in the U.S. jumped to a record in the first quarter, helping to explain gains in consumer confidence, another report showed today.  Net worth for households and non-profit groups increased by $3 trillion from January through March, or 4.5 percent from the previous three months, to $70.3 trillion, according to data from the Federal Reserve.  Rebounds in housing and stocks have helped upper-income Americans recover much of the wealth lost during the recession.  The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 10.9 percent in the year to March, the biggest 12-month gain since April 2006, a report showed last month.    Household purchases climbed at a 3.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter, almost twice as fast as the prior quarter’s 1.8 percent gain. That helped the economy strengthen, with gross domestic product rising at a 2.4 percent pace compared with a 0.4 percent advance in the last three months of 2012, a Commerce Department report showed last week.

 

Description	Ticker	Last	CHANGE	% Chg Today	Pct Chg 1Yr
STOCK MARKETS
Dow Jones Industrial Average	INDU Index	15040.620	80.0300	0.5349	21.1508
S&P 500 Index	SPX Index	1622.490	13.5900	0.8447	23.3710
S&P 400 Mid Cap Index	MID Index	1170.280	13.9700	1.2082	26.8599
S&P 600 Small Cap Index	SML Index	466.570	-2.3100	-0.4900	26.8543
NASDAQ 100 Index	NDX Index	2950.304	13.1630	0.4482	15.8654
NASDAQ Composite Index	CCMP Index	3424.052	22.5750	0.6637	20.3652
Russell 3000 Index	RAY Index	964.380	8.6800	0.9082	24.1047
Russell 1000 Index (Large Cap)	RIY Index	899.140	7.9000	0.8864	23.7905
Russell 2000 Index (Small Cap)	RTY Index	979.460	11.3000	1.1672	28.0056
Wilshire 5000 Total Market	W5000 Index	17111.230	157.3300	0.9280	24.1642
TREASURIES	% Yield
3 Month Treasury	0.0507		0.0100	28.5714
6 Month Treasury	0.0761		0.0000	0.0000
2 Year Treasury	0.2856	99.930	0.0000	0.0000
5 Year Treasury	1.0064	99.969	0.0547	0.0547
10 Year Treasury	2.0733	97.125	0.1563	0.1611
30 Year Treasury	3.2352	93.125	0.2031	0.2186
ENERGY
Crude Oil, Brent Index	Brent Crude	103.520	0.4800	0.4658	6.1091
Crude Oil, Louisiana Lt. Sweet	LA Lt Sweet	103.760	0.5200	0.5037	5.2700
Natural Gas, Henry Hub Index	Nat Gas	3.854	-0.1470	-3.6741	12.7890
PRECIOUS METALS
Spot Gold $/oz	GOLD	1412.940	9.5400	0.6798	-12.7666
Spot Silver $/oz	SILVER	22.686	0.1210	0.5362	-22.9547
CURRENCIES
Euro	EUR Curncy	0.755	-0.0086	-1.1261	-4.9950
Japanese Yen	JPY Curncy	97.090	-1.9600	-1.9788	-18.4533
British Pound	GBP Curncy	0.641	-0.0082	-1.2633	-0.6819
Swiss Franc	CHF Curncy	0.930	-0.0124	-1.3162	2.6568
Canadian Dollar	CAD Curncy	1.026	-0.0083	-0.8023	0.1267
Chinese Renminbi	CNY Curncy	6.136	0.0084	0.1371	3.7271
FOREIGN INDICIES
FTSE 100 INDEX	UK	6336.110	-83.2000	-1.2961	17.6817
CAC 40 INDEX	FRANCE	3814.280	-38.1600	-0.9905	24.7133
DAX INDEX	GERMANY	8098.810	-97.3700	-1.1880	32.8983
NIKKEI 225 INDEX	JAPAN	12904.020	-110.8500	-0.8517	49.3569
HANG SENG INDEX	HONG KONG	21838.430	-230.8100	-1.0458	16.9188