Employment Falls – Dow Jones Follows
The Wall Street Journal reports that for the first time in four years U.S. employment fell “on steep drops in construction and manufacturing payrolls.” This suggests “that the housing recession is starting to grip the broader economy.”
There is more bad news: ” Previous reports were revised sharply lower. July job growth was revised down to 68,000 from 92,000. June gains were revised to 69,000 from 126,000. The 44,000 monthly average job gain for the past three months is down sharply from the 147,000 average between January and May.”
All in all, the report “puts added pressure on Federal Reserve officials to aggressively cut interest rates.”
As should be expected, Wall Street took a hit: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 192.01, or 1.4%, to 13171.34. The S&P 500 lost 21.64, or 1.5%, to 1456.91, and the Nasdaq fell 45.21, or 1.7%, to 2569.11.”
At this moment, I see that the Dow Jones stands at 13155.49, which means that it continues to fall (-207,86 in total). We’ll have to wait and see whether the tide will turn in the rest of the day; whether the market will recover a bit, or whether the downwards spiral will continue.
All in all, a bad day on Wall Street.
UPDATE
I now see it’s not improving. At this moment, the Dow Jones stands at 13,113,38 that’s 249,97 points less than when the day started.
One Response to “Employment Falls – Dow Jones Follows”
I had an interesting idea…will the Iraq War last as long as the U.S. economy does?
If the economy significantly tanks (enough for the punditry to call it a recession), which it might, with all the possibilities for bad things to happen…non saving consumers spending on credit, housing market bursts, possible Category 5 hurricane sweeping through the Gulf (again!), etc. would politicians declare victory and pull out? Would that be the straw that breaks the camel’s back as the people turn on the Bush administration (even more so), his poll numbers tumble into the teens as he’s blamed for a bad economy along with the war?