Taking Stock of Wall Street 2008-09-03

Another regional Fed banker has talked, this time Eric Rosengren from Boston and not so encouragingly because he feels the difficulties facing our economy are stronger than those during the credit crunch of the previous decade. He opposes raising interest rates at this time. In an address to the Chamber of Commerce in Manchester, N.H. he said unemployment can run from the present 2% to a high of 6%.

Is America aware of the fact and bracing itself for a triple unemployment than today? Aren't rosy employment pictures being dished out weekly giving Americans a false sense of financial security and forcing them to spend whatever money they should be saving NOW?

Today saw a flurry of important but confusing economic data:

Fed released the Beige Book which says economic activity is slowing in most of the 12 Federal Reserve districts. Price levels are under pressure from energy, food and other commodities costs. Wages did not contribute much to the pressure this time as the economic downturn made salary increases and even hiring less and less.

Challenger Job-Cut Report says August layoffs fell 14% from the July figures to 88,736, but were 12% higher than in August last year.

Factory Orders rose for the fifth consecutive month. July factory orders rose 1.3% against the June figure revised to 2.1% from 1.7%. The consensus forecast was for a 1% increase.

MBA says weekly mortgage applications jumped 7.5% as 30-year average mortgage rate fell from 6.44% to 6.39%. Refinances increased by 2.1%.

ICSC weekly report on retail chain stores saw sales rising 0.1% from a week ago, and 2.2% from last year.

Market indices sent out mixed signals to day with DOW going up, S&P 500 and Nasdaq sliding down:
Dow UP by 15.96 (0.14%) to 11532.88
S&P 500 DOWN by -2.60 (-0.20%) to 1274.98
Nasdaq DOWN by -15.51 (-0.66%) to 2333.7

Yes, after more than three weeks, volume crossed the billion mark at NYSE:
NYSE: 1.21 bln, Nasdaq: 2.13 bln

But still advancing stocks were almost matched by the decliners:
NYSE: 1614 v. 1491
Nasdaq: 1477 v. 1302

What happened today?