In previous months the Government reported
that August saw no jobs added to the economy where economists were
looking for 60 to 100,000. Needless to say Wall Street traders didn't
like that headline and sold stocks off that day.
In a previous report we saw 80,000
jobs added in October but with another revision of 159,000 new jobs
for that month. It appears lately there is some sort of problem
with the lagging estimate that revisions totally blow away. Job creation
north of 150,000 is good, north of 200,000 is upbeat. Data continues to
indicate that recession is not likely, according to measures.
For November, jobs came
in at 120,000, near estimates, but revisions again are upbeat.
Unemployment rate declined to 8.6 percent.
And December's jobs came
in at 200,000 with an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent. The jobs market is
going in the right direction, albeit slowly.
Jobs data still
surprises with Januarys new jobs of 243,000 and an unemployment rate of 8.3
percent. Jobs data continues to be upbeat.
Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), the output of goods and services produced in the United States, increased
at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth-quarter of 2011, according to
estimates by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The increase in GDP in the
fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions by private inventory
investments, personal consumption
expenditures (PCE), and exports and partly offset by federal, state, and local
governments spending.
Imports (subtracted in
the calculation of GDP) increased. The advance in GDP for the Third
Quarter primarily reflected increase in PCE and nonresidential fixed
investments, a decrease in state and local Government spending.
The Federal Reserve Board and the FOMC release table and charts summarizing the
economic projections and the target for the federal funds rate made by Federal
Reserve Board members and Federal Reserve Bank presidents for the January 24-25
meeting. Summaries of economic projections are released on an
approximately quarterly schedule.
Economic Projections Tables and Charts
Last FOMC meeting they
announced operation twist.
The FOMC said in the statement that they will
purchase, by June 2012, $400 billion of treasury securities with remaining
maturities of six to thirty years and will sell an equal amount of treasury
securities with remaining maturities of three years or less.
Federal Reserve Chief Bernanke speech to the committee on Responsible
Federal Budget conference in Washington D.C.. He spoke about fiscal
sustainability, the fiscal policy challenges, achieving fiscal
sustainability, and making of fiscal plans...
Consumer Price Index headline (CPI) was unchanged in December with the core price
(excluding food and energy) rising 0.1 percent. Energy contributed to the CPI
headline decrease...
Read the
Consumer Price Index report...
In past reports the headline CPI had risen 3.5 percent over 12 months, a slightly lower
figure than the previous 3.9 percent increase. The 12 month change
in energy fell from 19.3 to 14.2 percent. In contrast to the energy index
decrease, the 12 month change for core CPI (all items less food and energy)
edged up from 2.0 to 2.1 percent. The food index 12 month change was 4.7
percent, the same figure as the previous report.
Market Barometer creates charts and graphs of the U.S.
stock market for its
forecast. We collect data from the Government and Market Barometer
models to create the charts. This page is the index into the
sites charts and graphs.
![Initial Jobless claims [unemployment] Chart](initial_jobless_claims_chart.gif)
