Stocks shrugged off bad news on the jobs front and weak consumer credit data as they focused entirely on the fact that the Fed will continue its great printing experiment. Daily Futures has all the action:
U.S. Economy
The U.S. Labor Department said that the unemployment rate increased from 9.8% to 10.2% in October with a loss of 190,000 jobs, a bigger loss than expected. It is the highest unemployment rate since April of 1983.
The December 2010 eurodollars closed up .07 at a new contract high of 98.565 as today’s disappointing jobs report points to a continuation of low interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Most commodities traded lower today with concerns about weak economic demand ahead.
The U.S. Census Bureau said that wholesale sales were up .7% in September while inventories were down .9%.
AIG said that they earned $455 million in the third quarter, up from their whopping $24.5 billion loss a year ago.
Grains and Cotton
Today’s weather is clear and dry over most of the U.S. with mild, fall temperatures – good for harvest activity. December corn finished down 9.5 cents at $3.67.
The USDA said that China bought 356,000 tons of U.S. soybeans. November soybeans were down 19 cents at $9.48.
December wheat closed down 15 cents at $4.972 with better planting weather for the winter wheat crop and concerns that the USDA’s monthly estimates on Tuesday will show plentiful wheat supplies.
Livestock
The USDA estimated this week’s beef production at 499.5 million pounds, up 2.5% from a year ago. Pork production was estimated at 466.0 million pounds, up .2% from a year ago. December cattle fell 1.35 cents to 85.00.
Coffee
According to Dow Jones Newswires, private analysts are saying that Colombia’s coffee crop will total 8.3 million bags this year, quite a bit lower than the 12.2 million bag crop that the USDA expected back in June. December coffee closed down 3.20 cents at $1.3890.
Metals
December gold closed up $6.40 at $1,095.70, helped that today’s weak jobs report likely means that interest rates will remain low.
Energies
December crude oil dropped $2.19 to $77.43 with concerns about today’s high unemployment figures and weak economic demand ahead.
Currencies
Statistics Canada said that the unemployment rate increased from 8.4% to 8.6% in October with a net loss of 43,200 jobs, worse than expected. The December Canadian dollar fell 1.07 cents to 92.85.
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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