Again, today the embarrassment of the US politicians bothers me. Oh well, “Just live with it,” I tell myself. And so, I will …
- Think back to all the hysterics that occurred before Thanksgiving last year and then just before New Year’s. Each time it looked like a deal was out of reach, stocks tanked. And then every time hope that a solution was achievable, stocks rallied. So it went for weeks and weeks. Until in the end, the professional politicians screwed around so long that they actually missed the deadline. Boom, “the sequester” was triggered. The horror!
Aside from that, the market fall today most likely derives from the reality that buyers are waiting to see where the bottom is, or in the same vein, when the idiots in Washington will stop the nonsense, including the debt ceiling nonsense coming up. When that happens, here is what the big money will see – an economic world getting better by the minute.
- Activity in China’s services sector expanded at the fastest pace in six months in September as demand grew, cementing a modest pickup in the world’s second-largest economy.
- Retail sales in the euro zone rose much more than expected in August and were revised up for July as well, in a new sign that households could help sustain the bloc's nascent recovery.
- The final readings for the September Services PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) in Europe are out this morning. Services PMI Final Results:
ü Eurozone: 52.2 vs. preliminary 52.1
ü Germany: 53.7 vs. preliminary 54.4
ü France: 51.0 vs. preliminary 50.7
ü Italy: 52.7 vs. consensus 49.1
ü Spain: 49.0 vs. consensus 51.00
ü UK: 60.3 vs. consensus 60.0
- Order books in euro zone businesses filled at a faster rate and job cuts slowed to a trickle in September, according to purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) that survey thousands of companies worldwide.
- The ISM (Institute of Supply Management) Non-Manufacturing index for September shows the services sector of the economy expanded for a 45th consecutive month.
- The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell 20 percent in September, even as cuts in the healthcare sector more than doubled from the prior month, a report on Thursday showed. Employers announced 40,289 layoffs last month, down from 50,462 in August, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Yup, just hang in there and when this folly is over, let’s make some money.
Trade in the day; Invest in your life …
