General News:– Payrolls rose by 132,000. There was a revision to May: +190,000 versus 157,000 and to April: +122,000 versus 80,000.
– Unemployment is 4.529% with hourly earnings in line at 0.3%.
– Manufacturing hours came in strong, suggesting heavy production.
– Payroll Breakdown:
– Private +92,000
– Construction +12,000
– Retail down -24,000
– Manufacturing -18,000
– Government +40,000 (the government continues to be a strong employer.)
– Finance +1,000
– Eating and drinking establishments +35,000.
– Professional and business services -9,000 and temp services -8,000. (Temp services have been down all year. Note that in a strong economy, temp services should be up!)
– Birth/Death model is 156,000.
– A wire bill is floating around suggesting that Senators Clinton and Obama will sponsor the China currency bill, which allows companies in the US to petition for steeper anti-dumping duties on China or other countries with a low currency.
– Bloomberg is noting that Chinese manufactured fake batteries are showing up in Nokia and Motorola phones.
– Nestle is noting that food price inflation will be significant and long-lasting.
– Apollo Management may sell a minority stake to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Asia/Europe:
Asia:
– India’s M3 rose 21.7% in the two weeks ending June 22nd.
– Chinese stocks rallied. There was talk that the Chinese government may cut the stamp tax to support the market.
– China said that it will create loans to companies with innovative technologies while limiting loans to energy consuming industries.
– Chinese pork prices have risen 12% in June.
– Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is open to raising the consumption tax.
Europe:
– German factory orders rose 3.2% month over month. 0.6% was expected.
– UK manufacturing output rose 0.4%, 0.3% was expected.
Corporate News:
– Newmont Mining (NEM) is stopping its gold hedging and discontinuing its merchant bank operations.
– CME may boost its bid for CBOT Holdings (BOT).
– Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is investing $7.5 million in Transmeta.
– Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) and Ruth’s Chris Steak House (RUTH) warned of weak profits and revenues.
– Inter-Tel (INTL) and WCI Steel (WCIS.PK) guides are lower.
