CARTEL CAPITULATION
The US stock market took off with the DOW gaining 123 to 10,716, while the DOG leaped 29 to 2087. Bad news is good news I guess.
US economic news:
09:47 Jan. final Univ. of Michigan Confidence reported 95.5 vs. consensus 96
Prior reading was 95.8. S&P futures currently at 1192.5.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers added just 146,000 new jobs in January and hiring in the previous three months was revised lower, the government said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the job market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years.
The gain in nonfarm payrolls in January came in below market expectations for 190,000 new jobs but was enough to return the nation's employment to where it was before the 2001 recession began. It also erased the jobs lost during President Bush's first term.
January's increase in hiring came after a downwardly revised 133,000 gain in December. The Labor Department also cut its estimate of jobs created in October and November, trimming a total of 59,000 jobs over the fourth quarter of 2004.
Still, the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent, the lowest level since a 5.0 percent reading in September 2001. The drop came amid a fall in the number of people in the labor force, which includes both those with jobs and those looking for work.
As expected, the Labor Department also said it had revised up its measure of jobs created in the year to March 2004. In its annual benchmark revision, the government statisticians said 203,000 more jobs were created in the March 2003-March 2004 period. The revision was expected and does not change the general outlook for employment.
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