U.S. stock futures inch up; data, ECB await

marketwatch.com ^ | November 8, 2012 | Barbara Kollmeyer

[John W]

MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stockmarket futures inched cautiously higher on Thursday, as investors remained on edge after fiscal-cliff worries triggered a post-election plunge for Wall Street the prior day. Asia stocks tumbled in the wake of those losses.

Weekly jobless and trade-deficit numbers, along with an interest-rate decision from the European Central Bank are among the day’s main events.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJZ2 +0.19% rose 14 points to 12,877, while futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index SPZ2 +0.14% rose 0.6 point to 1,389.70.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index NDZ2 +0.22% rose 3 points to 2,613.

Henrik Drusebjerg, senior strategist at Nordea Bank, said markets will remain fragile as the focus remains on “politicians and the road towards the fiscal cliff.

[Roccus]

I fully expect a significant drop in first time UE claims due to Sandy hampering data collection in so many states.

[tired&retired]

Everyone knows that beginning under the Clinton Admin. the government started playing the stock futures as an easy cheap way of manipulating the market.

The whole market is now a facade since the Fed. Reserve started playing with it.

[Sequoyah101]

Probably so but everything moves with the markets so what do you do?

[Roccus]

From the labor dept;

"In the week ending November 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 355,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 363,000. The 4-week moving average was 370,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 367,250."

Holy mackerel, Andy!!!
NO revision in last week's headline number!!!!!!!

...and NO mention of data delays caused by Sandy!!! Next week should be a real beaute!

[Roccus]

Link

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

But there will be a spike upward in those areas for a few months ( mainly in construction ) followed by a sudden drop after everything is repaired. It’s the broken window fallacy in action.

[Roccus]

But there will be a spike upward in those areas for a few months ( mainly in construction )

Possibly, but think about all the businesses that were destroyed and the folks that worked there.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Once the recovery gets in full swing the numbers will get skewed. Many businesses will operate out of temporary locations. Insurance ( Probably the Fed ) used to pay for this and employees salaries after disasters. Stores in the undamaged surrounding areas have to hire more as some get overwhelmed by the demand. But these job numbers will be fleeting. Saw this after Hurricane Hugo. For several months it was almost impossible not to have a job. But one day, after several months almost everything is repaired and new things are no longer needed in that area. The out of town companies return home. Companies don't move as they're most in new places. Job numbers in those areas eventually are lower than before the disaster. Local companies like construction have less jobs for a long while.

[Roccus]

Not so sure about insurance picking up the tab on a lot of these businesses and homes. Flood ins. in many of these areas is unattainable except for Fed. Ins. and that is VERY costly and in order to receive a payout to rebuild, you have to relocate to non-flood prone areas.

[tired&retired]

“Probably so but everything moves with the markets so what do you do?”

I think the Canadian economy will be better than the US.