Making America Great -- Another Record -- Staggering -- Jobs Report -- July 5, 2019

Updates

More: link here.

Later, 2:12 p.m. CT: even the Washington Post agrees! Love it --

Later today, I'm sure we will see another ZeroHedge story that tells us the "next recession is right around the corner."

Original Post 

Wow, I love to blog.

First thing I checked this morning, after the initial note for the blog: futures. US market futures were down a hundred points. Why?

Perhaps this. The Drudge Report banner today:

This dovetails nicely with the long rambling post I did yesterday at this link. All that talk about "the recession being just around the corner"? Just talk apparently.

Apparently "the speech" went quite well yesterday.

Let's dive into the jobs report for June, 2019.

From CNBC:

• Nonfarm payrolls rose 224,000 in June, well above market expectations of 165,000
• The unemployment rate hedged higher to 3.7% but was still near 50-year lows
• Wage growth was 3.1% year over year, one-tenth of a point below market expectations 

Well, I don't know. The unemployment rate jumped! I suppose this will end up being the CNBC soundbite before it's all over. Whatever.

Payrolls rise well above market expectations and unemployment rate jumps; means only one thing.

And, no wage inflation.

From the linked article:

May’s initially reported growth of 75,000 had raised doubts about the durability of the record-setting expansion that began a decade ago.

The May count was revised lower to 72,000.Markets have been widely anticipating that the central bank will cut its benchmark interest rate later this month, regardless of what the June payrolls report showed. Stock market futures ticked lower after the report as investors contemplated what the report might mean for expectations that the central bank will be cutting interest rates later this month in an effort to stave off a widely expected economic slowdown through the year.

It looks like the rate cut(s) can wait.

Meanwhile, the polls. From elsewhere in the blog:

• Harris: another big jump, to 14.7%; Americans are apparently ready for another Obama - this time a woman; something tells me the Hillary war room is in a panic; looks like it's about time for Harris to start moving to the center ("busing should be considered, but not mandatory")

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Foolish

I used to subscribe to The Atlantic. I thought it was a pretty good publication. But, wow, it has gone off the rails, its editor suffering from TDS also.

After fawning over Beto this past year, the Atlantic is looking fairly foolish. My hunch is that, as much as I liked Hunter S. Thompson, he, too, would have been a Beto supporter.

So, what's the market doing, now that I'm all caught up ... sort of. Apparently spooked by the incredible jobs report:

• S&P 500: down 21 points
• Dow: down 150 points
• WTI: $57.46 -- and that's after the UK seizes an Iranian tanker in the Strait of Hormuz

By the way, the fact that the price of oil actually fell after the UK seized an Iranian tanker in the Strait of Hormuz tells me all I need to know about, well, a lot of things:

• Trump
• shale oil
• OPEC 

By the way (again): has anyone yet suggested that fracking caused the earthquake in California yesterday?