Reuters: Unemployment Claims Fall Sharply -- Thursday Morning Links -- Nothing On the Bakken -- For the Bakken, Scroll Up, Down, or Sideways -- Unemployment Claims: Lowest in .... Two Months!

WSJ Links

Note for newbies: I post links to the WSJ so I can read them later on the iPad. I subscribe to the print/on-line edition of WSJ, but I prefer the print edition and have not downloaded the app (if there is one) and have not registered for the on-line edition. For me, the WSJ links help put the Bakken in perspective. Unless you are interested in non-Bakken articles, I would skip this page. Some folks who write me about the "WSJ links" suggest they have trouble finding posts about the Bakken on this website because of these non-Bakken posts. Whatever.


Section D: great photo of an Apple iPad (simply called a table in the caption, but "we" all recognize it) on the dash of a supervisor driving on Logan Airport. Speaking of which, Google [$10 billion tax free off-shore] has just released its "IOS Maps" app with turn-by-turn directions. It will be a huge hit this Christmas. It downloads for .... free.

Section C: Yup, here it is, as reported in the MDW two days ago:

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. repurchased $1.2 billion in stock from an unnamed shareholder, an unusual deal for a company that typically eschews buybacks.

Berkshire bought the shares from a "long-time shareholder," allowing it to cash in on the holdings before the federal government raises taxes on such gains. 

Yup, the ObamaCliff. Another article on same story.

Section B: someone else decided it was worth reporting the number of companies accelerating dividends ahead of the ObamaCliff.

Google has come under complaints that it has quietly made porn harder to find. I cannot make this stuff up.

Section A: no link but the headline story is that the Fed is now focused on jobs, not inflation. Huge, huge story, especially for investors.

Doomsday: the states. States faulted over teacher pension shortfall. States with largest teachers' pension liability, rounded: Illinois, $45 billion; Ohio, $40 billion; Texas, $24 billion; Pennsylvania, $20 billion; Michigan, $18 billion; New Jersey, $16 billion; Colorado, $13 billion; Indiana, $11 billion; Kentucky, $11 billion; Louisiana, $11 billion. But Americans are content/satisfied. Four more yerars.

A quiet day.

Unemployment Numbers

At USA Today, happy days are here again:

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply for a fourth straight week.

The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 29,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, lowest level in two months. It is the second-lowest total this year.

"... the lowest in ... drum roll ... two months." I cannot make this up. Yes, happy days are here again. Will the Fed raise rates now that unemployment rates are the lowest in two months?

Then this stellar analyis:

Applications spiked five weeks ago because of Superstorm Sandy. The storm's impact has now faded. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell 27,000 to 381,500.

Before the storm, applications had fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 this year.

Reuters was also impressed with the plunge in first time unemployment claims.

I don't know about you, but there's not been much change; even "Sandy" seems to be background noise.