The bulls charged as stocks gained for the first three days of the holiday-shortened week. Then Friday morning the June Employment Report showed jobs down on every front. The markets dipped for the day, but ended up for the week. The downer? A piddling 18,000 nonfarm payrolls were added last month and April and May payrolls were revised lower, while the unemployment rate went to 9.2%. The economy certainly hit a "soft patch" in Q2.

There was, however, positive labor news. New unemployment claims fell 14,000 for the week and continuing claims were down 43,000 to 3.681 million, the second lowest level in the recovery. Retailers delivered some solid same-store sales reports, so consumers are indeed spending. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index declined for the month, but is still above 50, so the service sector continues to expand.

For the week, the Dow ended UP 0.6%, to 12657; the S&P 500 was UP 0.3%, to 1344; and the Nasdaq was UP 1.6%, to 2860.

Bonds got hammered as investors sold off to join the stock rally. But the disappointing June payrolls report helped prices recover on Friday. The FNMA 4.0% bond we follow ended the week up .94, at $100.19. National average rates on fixed-rate mortgages nudged up a bit, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey. They're still historically low, but some observers feel they could be heading up.

From my weekly enewsletter INSIDE LENDING, for real estate pros, July 11, 2011

 

 
Posted by Kevin Hawkins on 07/11/2011 03:48 PM   Comments (0)   stocks and bonds  
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Kevin Hawkins

Bainbridge Island, WA

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IMPREV, Inc.

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