Happy 4th

by Larry Levin

There wasn't a great deal of trading last Thursday after the first 45-minutes of the session. We believed this was coming so no trades were made. Markets were closed Friday in observation of the US Independence Day; we hope you all had a relaxing long weekend and are ready to go again Monday morning.

Last Friday's main economic data report was from the BLS - monthly jobs data, which was about 40% worse than expected.

The government released the following: Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in June (-467,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job losses were widespread across the major industry sectors, with large declines occurring in manufacturing, professional and business services, and construction.

The official unemployment rate is 9.5% and rising. However, if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is labeled as U-6 in the government report and is 16.5%.



Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 7/2/09

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) No trades.

2) Algorithm positions (0)

3) "Reading the Tape" positions (0) ...combined Secret's, Algo, & "Reading the Tape" total...None



Electronic (YM) Mini-Dow:

1) None today



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