Extracted from Channelnewsasia.
WASHINGTON : A stumbling US economy lost 63,000 jobs in February, according to a shockingly weak report released Friday as the top White House economic adviser warned the economy could shrink.
The Federal Reserve took fresh steps to pump liquidity into the stressed banking system, making up to 200 billion dollars available to fight a credit crunch related to the most severe housing slump in decades.
The Labour Department report showed the second straight month of losses in nonfarm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum.
Revised data showed a loss of 22,000 positions in January, compared with a prior estimate of 17,000.
February's loss was the biggest since March 2003, at the start of the war in Iraq, and a major disappointment for analysts expecting a gain of 25,000 jobs. "The payrolls report had recession written all over it," said Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets.
Expect STI to drop more than 3% on Monday. For the shorters and contra players, I wish you all the best on Monday, please don't get burnt as market is still unpredictable and any good news will push the direction northwards. For the value investors, I understand your pain if you had bought some shares last few weeks. We need to understand that its not possible to predict the lowest. As long as you has substantial reasoning to support your buying, just go ahead with it. Remember, value investors hardly react to market noise in the short term. Happy investing.
Post a Comment