Financial Review

Jobs Report Friday: meh

Sinclair Noe — October 2, 2015

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DOW + 200 = 16,472
SPX + 27 = 1951
NAS + 80 = 4707
10 YR YLD – .05 = 1.99%
OIL + .92 = 45.66
GOLD + 24.90 = 1139.40
SILV + .74 = 15.37

The economy added a seasonally adjusted 142,000 jobs in September, missing estimates by about 60,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1%. More people dropped out of the labor force.

The Department of Labor revised the August employment numbers from 173,000, down to just 136,000.  The disappointing back-to-back employment reports were the worst pair in three years. Employment gains for July were also revised down from 245,000 to 223,000. The combined revisions for July and August lopped off 59,000 jobs from previous reports.

Normally, the August jobs number is revised higher, not lower. Because of education related jobs and other variables, the August report has been notorious for upward revisions; typically at least 35,000 positions are added to the initial count. Not today. Six of the past eight reports have been revised lower in subsequent months.

Taken together, the three months averaged 167,000, a total that, while representing expansion, also signifies a major slowdown from the 260,000 per month clip for all of 2014. Moreover, at the beginning of the year, the three-month average was 312,000. Overall in 2015, job creation is now below the 200,000 milestone, sitting at 198,000 and drifting lower.

The average hourly wage paid to American workers fell a penny in September, once again confounding expectations that pay will rise because of the rapid decline in the unemployment rate over the past few years. The typical worker earned $25.09 an hour last month. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees were unchanged at $21.08 in September. The amount of time people worked each week fell a tick to 34.5 hours in September.

Nominal wage growth was unchanged at 2.2% year-over-year.  In September, the Labor Department’s report on job openings noted a 14-year high – 5.8 million – leading some to worry that the labor pool does not currently have the skills that employers require. The flip side is that employers may need to pay more to attract qualified, skilled workers, but for now it doesn’t look like that is happening.

Among the few bright spots in the September employment report, an alternative measure of unemployment known as the U6 rate fell to 10%, the lowest level since June 2008. OK, I admit that’s not much of a bright spot. The U6 includes anyone who wants a full-time job but can’t find one, including part-time workers. The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in September to 6.04 million from 6.48 million in August.

Over the past 12 months, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons declined by 1.0 million. The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks increased by 268,000 to 2.4 million in September, partially offsetting a decline in August. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 2.1 million in September and accounted for 26.6 percent of the unemployed.

The percentage of Americans in the labor force fell to the lowest level since October 1977. The labor force participation rate fell to 62.4% from 62.6%. If people had not dropped out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would have been higher. Much of the lower participation rate can be explained by demographics; younger people are continuing their education and many older people are retiring. To get a better understanding of this, the 25 to 54 year old labor participation rate, which is the prime working years, declined to 80.6% in September, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio was unchanged at 77.2%.

It may be hard to find a silver lining in this month’s jobs report, but it doesn’t mean the labor market has collapsed, more like a dip than a stumble. Total employment is now 4.0 million above the previous peak.  Total employment is up 12.7 million from the employment recession low. Private employment is now 4.4 million above the previous peak. Private employment is up 13.2 million from the recession low. In September, the year-over-year change was 2.75 million jobs.

Private payroll employment increased 118,000 from August to September, meaning state and local governments added a combined 26,000 jobs in September, however the federal government lost about 2,000 jobs. The rebound in government jobs squares with other data, such as the recently released final US GDP numbers for the second quarter.

Those numbers showed government spending making the largest contribution to economic growth in years. Only 118 thousand public sector jobs have been added during the first thirty one months of Obama’s 2nd term (following a record loss of 702 thousand public sector jobs during Obama’s 1st term). This is one of the anomalies of this jobs recovery; it has not had support from government jobs.

The manufacturing sector remains soft, with factory payrolls falling by 9,000 when they were expected to show no change. With dollar appreciation and sluggish overseas growth providing headwinds, it was the biggest back-to-back decline since 2010. Mining/logging, a category that includes oil exploration and drilling, posted a loss of 12,000 jobs; wholesale trade also dropped over 4,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality services gained 35,000 jobs. Health care added 34,000 jobs in September. Employment in professional and business services gained 31,000 jobs. Retail trade employment trended up in September (+24,000).

Earlier this morning, futures indicated a triple digit gain for the Dow Industrials, but following the release of the jobs report futures fell and Wall Street opened down, the Dow Industrials were down 258 points in the first hour of trading. The 10-year yield hit 1.92 percent, falling below 2 percent for the first time since Aug. 24. The 2-year yield also hit its lowest level since August 24, holding near 0.55 percent in morning trade. The Dow and S&P 500 closed up more than 1 percent for their biggest intraday upside reversal since Oct. 4, 2011.

The U.S. dollar fell nearly 1 percent against major world currencies, with the euro briefly topping $1.13 for its highest level against the dollar in more than a week. The yen strengthened to 119.03 against the dollar. The dollar bounced back as trading continued, but still closed lower against a basket of currencies. Crude oil started lower but surged back to a one-week high after a report showing the number of working U.S. oil rigs fell to a five-year low.

The initial reaction was the markets acknowledging that bad news is bad news, after that the bad news was interpreted as good news because it likely means no Federal Reserve rate hike in the immediate future.

With weaker-than-expected payroll expansion, the jobs report for September suggests the U.S. economy isn’t immune to the global economic slowdown. The disappointing performance reduces the probability the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in October. Fed fund futures now indicate the Federal Reserve will delay a rate hike until March of 2016. October now stands just a 2 percent chance as being the month for the U.S. central bank to hike for the first time in more than nine years, according to the CME Group. December is at just 29 percent, January is at 39 percent and March is priced in as the most likely month, just barely, with a 51 percent probability.

Yet the continued stimulative monetary policy of close-to-zero rates is, by itself, unlikely to do much to resolve what ails the U.S. and the rest of the world. Eric Rosengren, the president of the Boston Fed, in a TV interview this morning said a rate hike is not off the table for 2015. Rosengren said he supported the Fed decision not to hike rates in September, but he is not a voting member of the FOMC.

Stanley Fischer, vice chair of the Fed, in a speech in Boston today did not address the economic or interest rate outlook in his remarks at a conference on “macroprudential monetary policy.” Fischer did say he doesn’t see immediate risks of financial bubbles in the U.S., while raising concerns that the central bank’s policy tool kit to deal with such occurrences is limited and untested.

Third-quarter economic growth is slowing rapidly. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracker is expecting gross domestic product to advance just 0.9 percent, a number that has been taken down nearly a full percentage point from its most recent target and does not include Friday’s dismal jobs reading.

The Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged at their September FOMC meeting looks like a smart call in hindsight. Had the Fed gone ahead and tried to raise interest rates, despite collapsing global commodity prices and surging market volatility brought on by a sharp Chinese slowdown, soft job market data would have been far more alarming. Such a delay might not be a bad thing. After all, the global economy is in the midst of a big shift, from a China-centric, emerging-market-oriented commodities boom, toward …, whatever it is the future brings.

Having avoided a government shutdown this week after negotiating a stop-gap measure to extend federal funding until December, Congress has until around November 5 to raise the $18.1 trillion debt cap and avert a default. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says that is when the country is due to run out of cash sooner than thought. President Obama held a press conference today and said that he would not sign another stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, warning that gridlock on a full-year spending plan threatens U.S. economic growth.

The recent data suggests government could be a more meaningful contributor to growth over the near-term. If that’s true, and it’s a big if because there are signs of another debt fight brewing, the Fed’s easy money policies will likely be more effective than they have been. In other words, the Fed will no longer be working at cross-purposes with the government.

Financial Review

Undo Send

Sinclair Noe — June 23, 2015

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:16 — 6.1MB)

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DOW + 24 = 18,144
SPX + 1 = 2124
NAS + 6 = 5160
10 YR YLD + .05 = 2.41%
OIL + .33 = 61.01
GOLD – 7.90 = 1179.00
SILV – .33 = 15.94

This was a flat day on Wall Street. Most of the session saw the major averages hovering around breakeven. The Nasdaq Composite eked out another record high. The economic news was mixed; durable goods orders were weak but new home sales were fairly strong. While stocks have been trading in a very tight range to start the year, some might call it boring. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index hasn’t posted a gain or loss of 2 percent or more for 126 days, the longest streak since one ending in February 2007. Meanwhile, the bond market has been pretty exciting but not in a good way. Longer-dated Treasuries have been jumping all over the place, posting some of the biggest back-to-back gains and losses on record as the Federal Reserve talks about raising interest rates and European leaders act out a Greek tragedy.

The bond market is supposed to be a safe haven, and so bond investors have pulled $327 million from exchange-traded funds focused on this longer-dated debt in the past week alone, and $1.4 billion year-to-date.

The Commerce Department says non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft rose 0.4 percent last month. Overall orders for durable goods fell a seasonally adjusted 1.8% last month, but the decline stemmed mostly from a 35% plunge in bookings for commercial aircraft. Apart from transportation, there were increases in demand for primary metals, fabricated metal products, machinery and computers and electronic products. Orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components fell. Although the May report on durable goods was generally positive, businesses still aren’t spending and investing at a pace that would suggest they have full confidence in the economy. Business investment in the first five months of 2015, for example, was 2.6% lower compared to the same period in 2014.

New single-family homes sold at an annual rate of 546,000 in May, up 2.2% from April, and up 19.5% from a year earlier. That’s the fastest pace since February 2008. The median price of new homes, meanwhile, fell 1% to $282,800 compared with May 2014.  The S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) touching a new eight-year high intraday. There are several positive factors for the homebuilders, including some M&A activity; last week Ryland Group and Standard Pacific announced a merger.

But the big news in housing is first time buyers. The latest Census Bureau report in April marked the fastest back-to-back gains in household formation since the second half of 2005. Confirmed by yesterday’s report from the National Association of Realtors showing first time buyers accounted for 32 percent of purchases this month, up from 30 percent in April and 27 percent a year ago. Excluding November 2009, when demand spiked from the expiration of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, sales last month were the strongest in more than eight years for this group.  If you look at people between the ages 18 and 34, nearly a third of them are at home with their parents; if they move out, that would be 4 million households that would be created.

Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model shows the US economy is on track to grow 2.0% in the second quarter, up from earlier forecast of 1.9% growth.

Euro zone leaders welcomed new budget proposals from Athens as a basis for further negotiations to unlock billions of euros in frozen aid and avert a default. But it’s not a done deal. Greek lawmakers reacted angrily to concessions Athens offered, and parliament’s deputy speaker warned the proposals might be rejected.

While Americans are the biggest foreign owners of Greek stocks, it’s not much. Overseas investors hold 59 percent of the Greek stock market, and of that U.S. traders have about 25 percent. That comes out to $5.7 billion, about the size of doughnut maker Dunkin’ Brands Group, the 110th weighting in the S&P Midcap 400 Index. U.S. investors kept sending money to Greek stocks even as the market tanked. An exchange-traded fund tracking the shares has had inflows every week this year and received $9.5 million last week. Its market cap reached a record this month. We have clearly been programmed to anticipate bailouts. While there might not be much direct exposure to a Greek default, the spillover could still be problematic. Greece may be small but it is important geographically, geopolitically, and there is always the risk of contagion.

European shares climbed to three-week highs on today, extending the previous session’s rally on expectations that Greece was getting closer to a debt deal. Greece’s ATG share index rose 6.1 percent, adding to a 9 percent jump in the previous session. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 1.1 percent to touch its highest level in three weeks.

Economic activity in the Eurozone grew at the fastest pace in four years in June, providing the latest sign that a recovery in the region is gaining traction. Markit’s Composite Flash Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 54.1 from 53.6 in May, boosted by momentum in Germany and France, the bloc’s two largest economies. The data adds to the evidence that the ECB’s massive stimulus program is taking effect.

The fast-track trade bill cleared a key procedural hurdle today in the Senate, all but ensuring it will win final passage this week and be sent to the White House for the president’s signature. Fast-track, or trade promotion authority, would allow the president to assure potential trade partners that the deals they negotiate with the U.S. will be presented to Congress for a yes-or-no vote without amendment.

Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae Yong apologized in a nationally televised address on Tuesday for failing to stop the spread of MERS at a Seoul hospital run by a group foundation. About half of the 175 MERS cases in South Korea have been traced to Samsung Medical Center. The outbreak has prompted travel restrictions and scared off tourists, dealing a blow to the country’s economy.

Nearly 30 percent of Americans are one emergency away from financial ruin; 29 percent of people don’t have money set aside to cover  emergencies, up from 26 percent last year, according to an annual survey from Bankrate.com. Many of the people who had savings didn’t have enough money to get them through a serious emergency or prolonged period of unemployment. About 20 percent of people said their savings would not last longer than three months. At the same time, the number of people with substantial savings is falling. About 22 percent of people had enough cash to cover six months of expenses, the lowest level in five years.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state Capitol. The flag wasn’t lowered to half-staff along with the other flags at the Statehouse after the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday because doing so is under the authority of the state’s General Assembly — and so is taking it down. The South Carolina legislature is convening to consider the proposal. Other states are also looking at taking down the flag, including Mississippi, and Virginia’s governor is calling for removing the flag from license plates. Wal-Mart, Sears, Amazon.com, and eBay all said they would stop selling products bearing the Confederate flag. Meanwhile, a chorus of corporate CEOs, from Tim Cook to Mitt Romney, are calling for the flag to be taken down.

General Mills said it would stop using artificial flavors and colors in almost all of its cereals, joining the food industry’s move towards products perceived as healthier. The packaged foods maker said it plans to have 90 percent of its cereals free of artificial flavors and colors by 2016, up from about 60 percent currently.

If you go to a restaurant there is a good chance the food comes from Sysco or US Foods; they are the two largest food distributors. Earlier this year, Sysco bid $3.5 billion to take over US Foods. The Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds. Today, a federal judge ruled that there is a reasonable probability that “the proposed merger will substantially impair competition in the national customer and local broadline markets and that the equities weigh in favor of injunctive relief.” And that effectively kills the deal.

Netflix has approved a 7-for-1 stock split. In soaring almost 100 percent this year, Netflix shares have reached nearly $700. As of last week, Netflix was the third-most expensive stock in the S&P 500. The split will come in the form of a dividend of six additional shares for each outstanding share. It is payable on July 14 to stock owners of record at the July 2 close. Trading at the post-split price will start July 15.

Starting next month, Amazon will overhaul the way it pays royalties to self-published authors on its e-book platform, by rewarding them based on the number of pages read, rather than the number of times their book has been borrowed. The move applies to books published via the Kindle Direct Publishing service, which follows the pay-per-track model of music streaming services like Spotify.

Have you ever sent an email to the wrong person? Gmail has come up with an option to “Undo Send”. Here is how to set it up. Once in Gmail, click on the “General” tab on the top right of the screen — the one that looks like a little gear. Choose “Settings,” scroll down, click “Enable Undo Send,” and choose a cancellation period of between five to 30 seconds. That is how much time users have to hit “Cancel” above an email while it’s sending. Once pressed, users will get a chance to edit or delete their email. The only question is why did it take so long?