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USA Jobs report spooks the optimists:
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Overweight people will apparently be paid by the NHS in South West Essex to lose weight. The pound-for–pound project will give people a £1 shopping voucher for every pound of weight they lose. However, diet experts warned it could promote dangerous binge dieting in order to be rewarded with vouchers. Luckily for the tax payer, one has to prove you are significantly overweight before allowed to take part in the scheme. You may ask,....couldn't this cause some binge eating to make the cut?
Yesterday’s market was dominated by the US jobs numbers and the ECB’s rate decision. In the US a worse-than-expected June non-farm payrolls result serves as a reminder that the US recovery prospects, and therefore global prospects, remain surrounded by uncertainty. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent. Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year, creating the fear that this will be another jobless recovery. Any positive economic growth seems to be driven by federal spending and to some degree, improvement in consumer confidence.
The ECB delivered the expected result of no change, but interestingly pushed their expectation for a growth resumption out to mid 2010 in another blow to the green-shootists.
I attended a meeting with the Bank of England yesterday at which we discussed quantitative easing, availability of credit and the current approach of rating agencies to corporate bodies. The main conclusions were that, the jury is still out on quantitative easing but it probably helped spur the Spring rally, credit is still extremely tight and to that end it is crucial that all corporate institutions take a pro-active approach to the ratings agencies to ensure that good news is accounted for as early as possible.
All eyes on Wimbledon where my bet is that Andy will reach the final!
Have a great weekend.
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