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Cited: MSNBC

Weekly jobless claims, now a widely watched economic indicator, fell to their lowest level in more than four years last week, as reported by the Labor Department. The promising data was well-received by the market with many economists hopeful that the job market is indeed improving and that these figures are evidence of growing employment in the U.S. For the week, the Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell by 50,000 in the week ending January 14, to 352,000 from a revised level of 402,000 the week prior. Economists were looking for claims to come in closer to 385,000 so the news made for some happy faces on Wall Street and Main St.

In looking for trends, economists will more often look to moving averages, which smooth out the data for onetime fluctuations, and even when looking at the 4-week moving average for jobless claims, the news is good with a drop of 3.500 to an average of 379,000 from the previous week at 382,500.

Most are expressing cautious optimism following the jobs report because there are also season factors at work here on the back of the holiday season when many people are hired back to work, only to be back on the unemployment lines a few short weeks after holidays are over. But, even taking these season factors into account, there is reason to be hopeful that the employment picture is getting more clear and for those looking for work, perhaps its getting a bit easier to find a job. With over 13 million Americans still unemployed and the overall unemployment rate still stuck near 8.5%, it will take a lot more reports like today’s before there’s any significant drop in the unemployment rate.

Other areas of positive news for the economy today came from the inflation data at the consumer level or the CPI, which was flat for the second straight month in December.

My take:

Just another example that things do take time and all of the claims that the Obama Administration is killing the economy may very well just be biased bluster and over time will look more and more like the partisan politics that it really is. Things might not be moving quickly enough, but they are moving for sure. I am hopeful that the data in the coming weeks will support the notion that the economy is pulling out of the ditch.

Cited: CNN

You often hear people quip that certain mega-corporations such as Exxon, are worth more than many small countries. Those countries are usually from the developing world and the remarks are generally a boast about the size of the company and a bit of condescending commentary on the backwardness of the country. These days the corporations are bigger and so are the countries that they dwarf. For a brief time today, shares of Apple rose to levels that put the total worth of the technology giant above $400 billion, a lofty perch from which they are able to gaze down on the total output, and worth of Australia, Greece, Argentina, and South Africa, to name just a handful. Only Exxon Mobil at approximately $420 billion is larger than Apple, and the sovereigns below.

Generally when a company grows to this capacity it is hard to get much bigger much faster but such is not the case with Apple. Later this week they will report finances for the prior year and analysts expect that the report will show that the company grew by 45% over the last year, an astounding growth spurt for a company of its size.  Apple is now in its 35th year of operation and just 10 years ago only had a market cap of $10 billion.

The iPod is probably the Apple devise that was the catalyst for huge growth of the company while the iPhone hitting the market in 2007 added another retro-rocket boost to sales, and the reputation of Apple as being the most innovative technology company serving the retail market consumer. And not the kind of company to sit around counting their money, Apple announced today that they will undertake three new initiatives to transform the textbook – among them the ability to create and publish searchable, updatable, and interactive e-textbooks for the iPad.

My take:

The news with Apple goes from incredible to more incredible to what comes next. After so many years of floundering before the iPod and the iPhone, it looks like there is no stopping this technology giant. I must admit that I love all of their products and I’m generally surprised that they don’t actually cost more money considering all that they can do.