Thursday 3/7/2013

Good Morning from snowy, blowy, muddy Canadian Border USA side... It is a good day to be alive, which is true every day.

1. British Pound is hurting folks.  $1.50 and headed down.  The BOE is meeting today, which should end up in no change.  Incoming BOE Governor Mark Carney is expected to be more active as the government hands more power over to the BOE.  Will there be more Bond purchases and QEternity in the UK?  
2. Japanese Yen is headed down reaching .94.  Poor Gov. Kuroda does not have a bond purchasing program (you know, like the one we have here).  Right now he has a limit on bond purchases, and he very likely cannot get the Yen to weaken without a Bond Purchasing program.  Circulating the news was a story that China is NOT HAPPY.  It seems China is sending a warning to Japan about currency wars.  Just what the world needs -- more tension between those two.

The stock market was in a funk today, no matter what the news.  Employment numbers were pretty good, but Productivity numbers were horrible.  That put a funk into the market.  

Here is something from the Internet (although I'm not sure where or I would provide the link).  These need to be verified, but it was interesting.

Then and Now:  Then 2008 Start of financial meltdown

1. Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5 
2. Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73 
3. GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
4. Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million Now 13.2 million; 
5. Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million Now 47.69 million; 
6. Size of Fed's Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion Now $3.01 trillion; 
7. US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
8. Total US Debt Outstanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion; 
9. US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion; 
10. Labor Force Participation Rate: Then 65.8% Now 63.6% 
11. Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6; 
12. S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA Now AA+; 
13. 10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64% Now 1.89% 
14. USDJPY: Then 117; Now 94; 
15. EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050 
16. Gold: Then $748 Now $1583 
17. NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares

Many of these are easy to verify (like the DOW average and Gold.  Others are more challenging.)  Gentle Reader, there is no good way to spin those numbers positively.

May each of you who read this have a terrific Thursday and Friday.