Yesterday the Fed announced that they would continue to downsize their bond purchases. Starting today, they will allocate $25B to treasuries and $20B to mortgage backed securities each month. Both bonds and stocks rallied after the announcement and the DOW closed at yet another all-time high. Personal Incomes are up 0.5%, and Personal Spending is up 0.9%, both higher than expectations. Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (money we individuals spend on everything but food and energy) rose at an annualized level of 1.2%, above the 1.1% expected but well below that Fed’s target of 2.0%. Initial Jobless Claims rose by 14K new filings last week, and exceeded the expected number by 9%. The Labor Department’s monthly Jobs Report will be released tomorrow morning. on-farm Payrolls have been all over the map the last few months; it is expected that 210K jobs will have been created last month and that the Unemployment Rate will drop to 6.6% This morning I was introduced to third grader Kid President who has a lot of wisdom to share with us grown-ups. Sometimes I get completely sucked into an issue and forget this important lesson that Kid President shares with all of us in the picture above.
