LM Live! Report for Friday, November 6 The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) broke the bad news at 8:30 am Eastern this morning---the unemployment rate in the United States has risen above 10 percent. It has risen to 10.2 percent, actually. Interestingly, the stock market survived. A lot of people were speculating that a rise above 10 percent in the unemployment rate would lead to a severe pullback in both the Dow Jones Industrial Avearge and the S&P 500, but we didn't see either. Now, you're going to read a lot of different explanations of why that may be, but here's mine. Most investors view unemployment as a lagging indicator. That means it is going to turn around after the rest of the economy. Now, it seems to me that investors are seeing enough positive signs in the economy that they are able to shrug off a bad unemployment number and tell themselves that it will start to come around as the economy continues to pick up. We'll have to see how we do next week, but the fact that the Dow stayed up above 10,000 as we head into the weekend is a positive sign. - What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Should You Care? Preparing for Monday Keep your eyes on the earnings announcements for the following companies: - DISH Network (DISH) - Tesoro (TSO) - Trex (TWP) - Nationwide Health (NHP) - Hospitality Properties (HPS) |