All eyes are on the employment outlook ahead of tomorrow’s Jobs Report by the BLS. Forecasters predict 220,000 new jobs to have been created, well below the 288,000 from last month. Weekly Jobless Claims released today show that there were 312,000 new Unemployment claims last week. That number could increase over the coming weeks as Challenger, Gray & Christmas just reported that employers in the US laid off 52,961 workers in May–the largest one-month total since February.
Overseas, the European Central Bank just reduced their benchmark rate from 0.25% to .15% to stimulate cash flow across the EU. Additionally, they are now charging 0.1% to deposit funds overnight with the ECB in hopes that banks will lend their funds rather than sock them away. Interesting.
