Now That The Election Is Over -- Jobless Claims Jump to Six-Month High; Executive Order: My Daughters Won't Work On Wall Street -- Obama -- December 22, 2016

GDP, final revision, 3Q16: revised up to 3.5% gain.

GDP, latest update, 4Q16: latest update, December 16, 2016:

Latest forecast: 2.6 percent.

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2016 is 2.6 percent on December 16, up from 2.4 percent on December 14.

The forecast of fourth-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth increased from 2.1 percent to 2.4 percent after yesterday's Consumer Price Index release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Jobs -- From Bloomberg:

• forecast: 257,000
• actual: 275,000
• four-week average: 263,750

Cao Dwang, Shanghai, to Ohio. $600-million investment; Chinese auto glass tycoon; cites high taxes and soaring labor costs at home; comes after Trump threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator and slap 45% punitive tariffs on Chinese imports to protect American jobs.   

Executive order: president says his daughters will not work on Wall Street. I can't make this stuff up.

Free market capitalism ...  in Mexico? Mexico will end price controls on gasoline.  Prices at the pump could increase as much as 20%. Move will be phased in, beginning in the northern border states.

Along that same line ... US refiners cash in on Mexico's record fuel imports.

The fuel trade could top a million barrels per day (bpd) at times in 2017 as Mexico becomes increasingly dependent on the United States for strategic energy supplies and providing business worth more than $15 billion a year to refiners such as Valero, Marathon Petroleum and Citgo Petroleum.

The rise in Mexico's fuel imports reflects an economy that, after expanding for 27 quarters in a row even amid a public austerity plan, has been unable to increase its refining output to satisfy the consistent growth of its energy demand.

It has led to rapid reversal in energy trade between the two countries. In 2016, crude exporter Mexico will be a net oil importer from the United States for the first time as shipments of refined fuel heading south outnumber shipments of crude to the north, according to the U.S. EIA.

***************************

The Apple Page

The big story over at Apple for quite some time -- the past several months -- has been the new wireless Apple earbuds. These were critical now that Apple was phasing out the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Apple missed on its delivery; many rumors why.

The ear buds are now shipping. Apple fans are ecstatic.

But this is what is very, very interesting. Normally on the #1 Apple message board there is a lot of negativity against Apple and Apple products for any number of reasons. Not so with the ear buds. They are getting incredible press. Here is the take by the WSJ:

We tested Apple’s long-awaited Q-tips—um, earbuds—versus other truly wireless headphones on five sets of ears. Geoffrey A. Fowler found one resounding winner.

The story:

I’m the first to admit that Apple’s new AirPod earphones resemble Q-tips dangling from my lobes. Or maybe robotic ear antennas.

But I think you’ll get over looking like a cyborg and want a pair anyway.

Before they finally started shipping this week, I had the chance to use a set of $160 AirPods for three months. They aren’t perfect, but they quickly became my favorite earbuds. I’ll go further: AirPods are Apple’s best new product in years.

Just in time for Christmas. And Hanukkah.