April 3, 2009
April 3, 2009 by admin
The stock market is digesting another dismal jobs report. The month of March produced another record decline with employment as over 630,000 jobs were lost in the month and the national unemployment rate has been pushed above 8.5%. This marks the 15th month in a row with a net loss of jobs and pushes the total number of jobs lost above four million.
The dismal numbers out of the employment report could serve as the achiles heel of the stock market rally. The market moved above 8000 briefly on Thursday and has been in a bull rally over the past three weeks. There are a number of economists who are now stating that the economy is closer to pulling itself out of its current recession. Good news out of the manufacturing and housing markets this week have provided a boost to sagging consumer and investor confidence. The news follows the global economic meetings in Europe of the G20 summit. The meetings in London have been highly critical of the United States role in bringing down the world economy.
The move up with the stock market is pushing long term fixed rate mortgage loans up. The yield on the ten year bond opened at 2.81% on Friday and fixed rate loans have edged up about .25 over the past week. The stock market rally has also impacted energy prices. Oil is back above $50 per barrel and the average cost of a gallon of gasoline is closing in on $2. The low energy prices have been a major boost in helping to keep the economy from falling off of a cliff over the past six months. With jobs losses and consumer confidence in peril, the boost of low energy prices has been a great buffer to help the average consumer weather the storm of balancing their personal budgets.