Morning News Friday July 6th 2007

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 22^nd.

–          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.