Stocks Get Boost From Better-Than-Expected Jobs Data

Source: Washington Post

Friday, August 7, 2009; 11:08 AM
Stocks rose in early trading Friday after a government report showed that job losses slowed more than expected last month.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 1.5 percent, or 142 points, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained 1.6 percent, or 16 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained about 1.5 percent, or 30 points.
All three are headed toward closing the week in positive territory.
Investors have been clinging to signs that the economic downturn is easing, sending stocks to their highest levels so far this year. The Dow has jumped more than 40 percent since reaching a 12-year low in March.
Those hopes were stoked Friday by the Labor Department showing that non-farm payrolls fell by 247,000 in July, compared with a drop of 467,000 in June. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent the previous month. Both were far better than many analysts were expecting.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080701547.html?hpid=topnews

and Santa claus and the Easter Bunny. These numbers are completely ridiculous...if anything they just stopped counting the people who ran out of bnefits.

They always issue corrections withing a few weeks. Let us see what the real final number is.

but as long as "better than expected" is the new "good", we'll be playing this game.

... but better than none at all.