October 2011 U.S. Economic Fundamentals
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U.S. private sector adds jobs, planned layoffs rise
U.S. private-sector employers added more jobs than expected in September, but another report on Wednesday showed a jump in planned layoffs in the month.
Private payrolls rose by 91,000 according to payrolls processor ADP, above expectations for a gain of 75,000 in a Reuters poll.
August private payrolls were revised down to an increase of 89,000 from the previously reported 91,000.
Read the full article here.
U.S. private-sector employers added more jobs than expected in September, but another report on Wednesday showed a jump in planned layoffs in the month.
Private payrolls rose by 91,000 according to payrolls processor ADP, above expectations for a gain of 75,000 in a Reuters poll.
August private payrolls were revised down to an increase of 89,000 from the previously reported 91,000.
Read the full article here.
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September layoffs highest in two years
NEW YORK ` The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms in September jumped to its highest in more than two years due to heavy cutbacks by the military and Bank of America, a private report Wednesday showed.
Employers announced 115,730 planned job cuts last month, more than double August`s total of 51,114, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
The figure was the highest since April 2009 when 132,590 layoffs were announced.
September`s job cuts were also much higher than the same time a year ago, tripling from the 37,151 job cuts announced in September 2010. For 2011 so far, employers have announced 479,064 cuts, up 16.5% from the first nine months of 2010.
Read the full article here.
NEW YORK ` The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms in September jumped to its highest in more than two years due to heavy cutbacks by the military and Bank of America, a private report Wednesday showed.
Employers announced 115,730 planned job cuts last month, more than double August`s total of 51,114, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
The figure was the highest since April 2009 when 132,590 layoffs were announced.
September`s job cuts were also much higher than the same time a year ago, tripling from the 37,151 job cuts announced in September 2010. For 2011 so far, employers have announced 479,064 cuts, up 16.5% from the first nine months of 2010.
Read the full article here.
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U.S. jobs data gives cause for optimism
Increasingly jittery investors need to be on the lookout for false signals about the economy, whether from one-month anomalies or readings that may later be revised.
Markets worldwide are particularly nervous as Europe`s debt crisis threatens to infect the global financial system and the U.S. economy sputters. Money managers ` and their clients ` are hunting for any indications of whether their investments are getting safer or more risky, and what to buy and sell in response.
Read the full article here.
Increasingly jittery investors need to be on the lookout for false signals about the economy, whether from one-month anomalies or readings that may later be revised.
Markets worldwide are particularly nervous as Europe`s debt crisis threatens to infect the global financial system and the U.S. economy sputters. Money managers ` and their clients ` are hunting for any indications of whether their investments are getting safer or more risky, and what to buy and sell in response.
Read the full article here.
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U.S. economy adds 103,000 jobs in September
WASHINGTON - The United States added 103,000 jobs in September, an improvement over this summer and just enough to calm fears of a new recession that have hung over Wall Street and the country for weeks.
The Labor Department also said Friday that the nation added more jobs than first estimated in July and August. The government's first reading had said the economy added zero jobs in August.
The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 per cent.
Read the full article here.
WASHINGTON - The United States added 103,000 jobs in September, an improvement over this summer and just enough to calm fears of a new recession that have hung over Wall Street and the country for weeks.
The Labor Department also said Friday that the nation added more jobs than first estimated in July and August. The government's first reading had said the economy added zero jobs in August.
The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 per cent.
Read the full article here.
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Foreclosures: Uncle Sam and his 248,000 homes
The number of homes listed for sale by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration on Aug. 29, 2011: 89,819
For sale or rent by distressed owner: 248,000 homes. That`s how many residential properties the U.S. government now has in its possession, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages. Washington is sitting on nearly a third of the nation`s 800,000 repossessed houses, making the U.S. taxpayer the largest owner of foreclosed properties. With even more homes moving toward default, Fannie Mae (FNMA), Freddie Mac (FMCC), and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.
Read the full article here.
The number of homes listed for sale by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration on Aug. 29, 2011: 89,819
For sale or rent by distressed owner: 248,000 homes. That`s how many residential properties the U.S. government now has in its possession, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages. Washington is sitting on nearly a third of the nation`s 800,000 repossessed houses, making the U.S. taxpayer the largest owner of foreclosed properties. With even more homes moving toward default, Fannie Mae (FNMA), Freddie Mac (FMCC), and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.
Read the full article here.
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More than 20 U.S. housing markets officially improving
WASHINGTON, DC-The National Association of Home Builders/ First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) made its largest month-over-month improvement since the index value turned positive in December 2010. It found that 23 individual housing markets now qualify as "improving", which nearly double the 12 housing markets that made the list last month. The index measures improvement for at least six months in housing permits, employment and housing prices.
"Both the number and geographic diversity of improving housing markets expanded this month, with Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina all newly represented by one entry or more on the list," says National Association of Home Builders Chairman Bob Nielsen, in a statement.
Read the full article here.
WASHINGTON, DC-The National Association of Home Builders/ First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) made its largest month-over-month improvement since the index value turned positive in December 2010. It found that 23 individual housing markets now qualify as "improving", which nearly double the 12 housing markets that made the list last month. The index measures improvement for at least six months in housing permits, employment and housing prices.
"Both the number and geographic diversity of improving housing markets expanded this month, with Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina all newly represented by one entry or more on the list," says National Association of Home Builders Chairman Bob Nielsen, in a statement.
Read the full article here.
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More than 10 U.S. areas with rising real estate prices
Home prices increased in 12 states and Washington, D.C., on a year-over-year basis in August, according to a home-price report released this week by property data firm CoreLogic.
West Virginia led all states with an 8.6 percent rise in home prices, followed by Wyoming at 3.6 percent, and North Dakota at 3.5 percent. The CoreLogic Home Price Index tracks price changes in repeat sales of homes.
Read the full article here.
Home prices increased in 12 states and Washington, D.C., on a year-over-year basis in August, according to a home-price report released this week by property data firm CoreLogic.
West Virginia led all states with an 8.6 percent rise in home prices, followed by Wyoming at 3.6 percent, and North Dakota at 3.5 percent. The CoreLogic Home Price Index tracks price changes in repeat sales of homes.
Read the full article here.
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Investing in a jobless recovery
NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The dog days of August may be past for a resilient U.S. economy, but the European debt crisis and an entrenched American consumer point to tricky waters for investors to navigate.
A government labor market report on Friday showed U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in September and job gains for the prior two months were revised higher.
The better-than-expected numbers eased recession fears even as the unemployment rate remains stuck at 9.1 percent. Still, few economists predict the jobless rate to improve greatly, although some may revise upward their growth forecast.
Read the full article here.
NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The dog days of August may be past for a resilient U.S. economy, but the European debt crisis and an entrenched American consumer point to tricky waters for investors to navigate.
A government labor market report on Friday showed U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in September and job gains for the prior two months were revised higher.
The better-than-expected numbers eased recession fears even as the unemployment rate remains stuck at 9.1 percent. Still, few economists predict the jobless rate to improve greatly, although some may revise upward their growth forecast.
Read the full article here.
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Fed Governor Bullard: The U.S. has avoided the 'recession scare' and the economic data is getting better
We have no reason to believe that Fed governors have a better view of the economy than anyone else. If anything, we think that buy the time they're saying something, it's conventional wisdom.
Still it's notable that on a Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene just now, St. Louis Fed Governor bullard says that the US has avoided the "recession scare" and that he sees a "surprise on the upside" with regard to economic data.
Read the full article here.
We have no reason to believe that Fed governors have a better view of the economy than anyone else. If anything, we think that buy the time they're saying something, it's conventional wisdom.
Still it's notable that on a Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene just now, St. Louis Fed Governor bullard says that the US has avoided the "recession scare" and that he sees a "surprise on the upside" with regard to economic data.
Read the full article here.
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The rust belt comes back to life: shale gas revolution could bring 200,000 jobs to Ohio
ABC NEWS -- "Steubenville, Ohio, may not look like a city sitting on a multi-billion dollar industry. Unemployment here reached 15 percent in 2010, and a now-shuttered steel mill -- which was once the lifeline of the Steubenville economy -- is now just a painful reminder of what used to be. While the old way is gone for good -- a new way has already changed lives.
Two huge shale formations -- the Marcellus and Utica -- lay underneath a five-state region. Steubenville sits right on the epicenter of the Marcellus formation, ready to absorb all the new positions needed to open new and repurposed old wells. In a matter of months, rigs will begin to dot the landscape, and current and former residents hope the money will line their pockets.
More than 300 new jobs have already come to the Steubenville area. And as many as 10,000 more are expected in the next three years. If jobs keep growing at this pace, every adult in Steubenville could be working by April.
Read the full article here.
ABC NEWS -- "Steubenville, Ohio, may not look like a city sitting on a multi-billion dollar industry. Unemployment here reached 15 percent in 2010, and a now-shuttered steel mill -- which was once the lifeline of the Steubenville economy -- is now just a painful reminder of what used to be. While the old way is gone for good -- a new way has already changed lives.
Two huge shale formations -- the Marcellus and Utica -- lay underneath a five-state region. Steubenville sits right on the epicenter of the Marcellus formation, ready to absorb all the new positions needed to open new and repurposed old wells. In a matter of months, rigs will begin to dot the landscape, and current and former residents hope the money will line their pockets.
More than 300 new jobs have already come to the Steubenville area. And as many as 10,000 more are expected in the next three years. If jobs keep growing at this pace, every adult in Steubenville could be working by April.
Read the full article here.
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Motorola Solutions: The other Motorola
In mid-2008 Motorola was in trouble, and CEO Greg Brown was miserable. His mobile phone business was sagging, hurt by the Apple iPhone, and struggling to respond. The economy was sinking into recession. And he needed to figure out how to split up Motorola to placate shareholders like Carl Icahn.
The stress gave Brown insomnia. At 3 a.m. one night his wife found him pacing around their house.
Read the full article here.
In mid-2008 Motorola was in trouble, and CEO Greg Brown was miserable. His mobile phone business was sagging, hurt by the Apple iPhone, and struggling to respond. The economy was sinking into recession. And he needed to figure out how to split up Motorola to placate shareholders like Carl Icahn.
The stress gave Brown insomnia. At 3 a.m. one night his wife found him pacing around their house.
Read the full article here.
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Housing market fears despite rise
Mortgage lending rose by 4% in September compared with the same month last year, but lenders have warned that confidence in the housing market is likely to fall in the coming months.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that gross mortgage lending totalled around Â12.9 billion last month. The figure was down 2% on the Â13.1 billion lent in August this year, when mortgage lending hit a two-year high.
CML chief economist Bob Pannell predicted that CPI inflation - which hit a three-year high of 5.2% in September - and unemployment fears would reduce market confidence.
Read the full article here.
Mortgage lending rose by 4% in September compared with the same month last year, but lenders have warned that confidence in the housing market is likely to fall in the coming months.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that gross mortgage lending totalled around Â12.9 billion last month. The figure was down 2% on the Â13.1 billion lent in August this year, when mortgage lending hit a two-year high.
CML chief economist Bob Pannell predicted that CPI inflation - which hit a three-year high of 5.2% in September - and unemployment fears would reduce market confidence.
Read the full article here.
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Ben Bernanke starting to read Bank of Canada's playbook
Ben Bernanke has been keeping an eye on how Mark Carney has been fighting the financial crisis.
The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman cited the Bank of Canada governor`s conditional commitment in April, 2009, to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.25 per cent until June the following year as a `successful` experiment in central bank communication.
Read the full article here.
Ben Bernanke has been keeping an eye on how Mark Carney has been fighting the financial crisis.
The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman cited the Bank of Canada governor`s conditional commitment in April, 2009, to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.25 per cent until June the following year as a `successful` experiment in central bank communication.
Read the full article here.
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Not every real estate market is struggling
Want to know how bad the real estate market is? Just drive down almost any street in the U.S. and you`re likely to see `for sale` signs lining the road. Come back a month later, it`s a good bet the same signs are still there`and quite possibly a few new ones, too. But while there`s a lot of housing pain, there`s also some good news. That`s because in some markets across the country not only have home values improved, a few have even seen double-digit growth.
So where is this miracle occurring? Believe it or not, the city that has seen the biggest increase in home value is in Florida. That`s right`the state that has seen home values plummet 52.3 percent from 2006 peak levels. Nearly 96,000 loans were modified in Florida through August 2011 under President Obama`s Making Home Affordable program. Joblessness, foreclosures, and high inventory hamper recovery in nearly every corner of the state, with rare exceptions. In this case, the rare exception is Weston, a high-income city of more than 65,000 people near Fort Lauderdale where the median home value has risen 15.1 percent to $280,000 from February 2009 to August 2011.
Read the full article here.
Want to know how bad the real estate market is? Just drive down almost any street in the U.S. and you`re likely to see `for sale` signs lining the road. Come back a month later, it`s a good bet the same signs are still there`and quite possibly a few new ones, too. But while there`s a lot of housing pain, there`s also some good news. That`s because in some markets across the country not only have home values improved, a few have even seen double-digit growth.
So where is this miracle occurring? Believe it or not, the city that has seen the biggest increase in home value is in Florida. That`s right`the state that has seen home values plummet 52.3 percent from 2006 peak levels. Nearly 96,000 loans were modified in Florida through August 2011 under President Obama`s Making Home Affordable program. Joblessness, foreclosures, and high inventory hamper recovery in nearly every corner of the state, with rare exceptions. In this case, the rare exception is Weston, a high-income city of more than 65,000 people near Fort Lauderdale where the median home value has risen 15.1 percent to $280,000 from February 2009 to August 2011.
Read the full article here.
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U.S. government considers offering visas to real estate investors
That`s the offer of a new U.S. Senate bill aimed to boost the real estate market, sponsored by Charles Schumer from New York and Mike Lee from Utah. The bill would promise visas to international investors who agreed to the spending requirement on real estate.
`This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel,` Schumer told the Wall Street Journal last week.
order to be granted the visa, foreigners would need to make a cash investment of $500,000 or more on a residential real estate purchase, whether it goes into one property or is split between multiple properties, according to the Wall Street Journal. The special visa would allow the investors to spend more time in the U.S. than a travel visa would.
Read the full article here.
That`s the offer of a new U.S. Senate bill aimed to boost the real estate market, sponsored by Charles Schumer from New York and Mike Lee from Utah. The bill would promise visas to international investors who agreed to the spending requirement on real estate.
`This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel,` Schumer told the Wall Street Journal last week.
order to be granted the visa, foreigners would need to make a cash investment of $500,000 or more on a residential real estate purchase, whether it goes into one property or is split between multiple properties, according to the Wall Street Journal. The special visa would allow the investors to spend more time in the U.S. than a travel visa would.
Read the full article here.
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Unemployment rates fall in half of U.S. states
WASHINGTON - Unemployment rates fell in half of U.S. states last month, a sign that September's pickup in hiring was felt around the country.
The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates dropped in 25 states, rose in 14 and stayed the same in 11. That's an improvement from August, when unemployment rose in 26 states.
Nevada reported the highest unemployment rate for the 16th straight month. It stayed at 13.4 per cent for the second consecutive month. California was next. The rate there fell from 12.1 in August to 11.9 per cent. Michigan had the third-highest rate, at 11.1 per cent.
Read the full article here.
WASHINGTON - Unemployment rates fell in half of U.S. states last month, a sign that September's pickup in hiring was felt around the country.
The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates dropped in 25 states, rose in 14 and stayed the same in 11. That's an improvement from August, when unemployment rose in 26 states.
Nevada reported the highest unemployment rate for the 16th straight month. It stayed at 13.4 per cent for the second consecutive month. California was next. The rate there fell from 12.1 in August to 11.9 per cent. Michigan had the third-highest rate, at 11.1 per cent.
Read the full article here.
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Middle class's share of the nation's income is shrinking
For Reno car salesman Tim Ticknor, the squeeze on his middle-class existence gradually has turned into a chokehold.
In 2005, he was making more than $90,000 a year selling used cars to people who had moved to the Southwest for its booming economy. It was an income that allowed him to rent a townhouse with his wife and daughter in a gated community.
Read the full article here.
For Reno car salesman Tim Ticknor, the squeeze on his middle-class existence gradually has turned into a chokehold.
In 2005, he was making more than $90,000 a year selling used cars to people who had moved to the Southwest for its booming economy. It was an income that allowed him to rent a townhouse with his wife and daughter in a gated community.
Read the full article here.
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Role reversal: U.S. job seekers head north
Canada's stronger economy is becoming a magnet for Americans hunting for work.
In a reversal of historical flows, immigration lawyers report a surge of calls from Americans who want to move north. Statistics bear out their observations: A record number of Americans applied for temporary work visas last year, Immigration Canada statistics show, spurred largely by the contrasting health of the two countries' labour markets.
On one side of the border, 14 million Americans are out of work - the equivalent of more than 40 per cent of Canada's population.
Read the full article here.
Canada's stronger economy is becoming a magnet for Americans hunting for work.
In a reversal of historical flows, immigration lawyers report a surge of calls from Americans who want to move north. Statistics bear out their observations: A record number of Americans applied for temporary work visas last year, Immigration Canada statistics show, spurred largely by the contrasting health of the two countries' labour markets.
On one side of the border, 14 million Americans are out of work - the equivalent of more than 40 per cent of Canada's population.
Read the full article here.