EconomicsUSA: Key indicator: Oil slopes to 3-mnth low points, gas 8-mnths gas, housing dwnwrd, jobs down

MarketWatch's latest report on a key indicator for the overall health of the USA economy (Claudia Assis; posted 3:04, Aug 24, 2k10, MW), gave the most recent info on gas and oil in the commodites futures market. Again, for the purpose of mapping, all within the energy sector.

Crude oil (unrefined) dropped its price at the pump by 2% -- "with prices sent deeper into the red after a gauge of housing activity showed its biggest drop ever. Crude oil for October delivery was off $1.47 to settle at $71.63, an eleven-week low for oil."

Then MW's reporter adds:

Gasoline for September delivery settled at $1.85 a gallon, gasoline's lowest price since December 2009.

Energy Sector

* Oil futures -- down in Aug24,2k10 snapshot of this market specialty in energy sector.

* Gas futures -- down in Aug24,2k10 snapshot of this market speciality in energy sector.

Housing Sector -- down in Aug24,2k10 snapshot of this second major sector.

Jobs Sector -- down again in Aug24,2k10 snapshot of this third major market sector, individual jobs upon hire for agreed-upon pay, of course benefits amounts to be deducted from the pay (many unions insert such clauses, especially in closed shops).

Three sectors and four diverse markets afford us also with a zoom-in to conveniently cross compare the energy sector > petroleum industry > oil subindustry, preprocessing functions like drilling, extracting, pumping, transport (pipeline, vehicular or other). And its cousin subindustry within the petroleum products industry/ies of the energy sector -- gas or, as Canadians say, petrol, and which commodity in Canada is measured in metrics, not the USA's customary English naming practice over the centuries such as our American folks have adopted as their own.

It's scary to try to monitor possible indicators of a downward trend in the economy, but unsavory indications must be pursued as events unfold (I hate to say what I think, especially written writtled down) down.

-- EconoMix

EconomicsUSA: Stock Market: General Motors Corporation and its spin-off liquidation corp

I decided to do a little sleuthing regarding the stocks traded on various stockmarket, the ones bawt and sold on the New York Stock Exchange, and indexed not on the Dow Industrial Average as it turns out, rather on the NASDAQ index. NASDAQ is the

U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on the trading of domestic securities not listed on the regular stock exchanges. It publishes two composite price indexes daily as well as bank, insurance, transportation, utilities, and industrial indexes. By the 1990s it had surpassed the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) to become the second largest U.S. securities market, in terms of market capitalization, after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Members register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and meet requirements for assets, capital, public shares, and shareholders. In 1999 it merged with AMEX to form the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group, and in 2000 NASD sold nearly half its interest in NASDAQ to private investors.

My motive was in rummaging about for relevamt factoids has been simply that I ran across a lovely little app, a freebie called StockMeter that puts a stock quotation or two in your main Menu Bar on your personal computer screen, and Stockmeter then follows the change in the quotation, as the stock is exchanged over the course of the day. What a hoot! An update every half-hour or so, of a specific stock I choose to follow for a while.  Read more ...

EconomyUSA: Investors: Market Watch portrays May's volatility in this apt pix

Do you carry a left-goudzwaardian hate for capitalists, particularly investors?

Then, I give you occasion to rejoice and be exceeding glad as you feast your eyes on this one. But maybe you can glimpse the real pain in the face on this excellent bit of webcomic satire.  You see, the volatility of the markets last month created an enormous amount of anxiety and worse, as investors last month -- the good, the bad and the ugly among them -- tempted to cope with their shortfalls.  Of course, some clever lads made a killing, by luck or purposeful exploitation knowing when and where to reap stunning profits off the misery of others -- and the others not being only investors, small investors particularly, but also the noninvestors in the workforce and out of it, impacted severely by an unstable world and domestic market.

The month of June 2k10 will find rW attempting to monitor the general pattern of the markets (via MarketWatch and other financial newshorses), monitoring as well as the proposed American legislation to reform and better regulate the American domestic financial industry.  We're not laissez-faire, neither are we anticapitalist as some goudzwaardian reformational folk seem to be.  We're rather centre-goudzwaardian ourselves, but know that the stock markets are integral to the advanced differentiated society we live in, and that sphere sovereignty is conceptually and practically (as a life-practice) prior to the capitalist vs socialist debate so prominent in some corners today.  Let's get out of the corners!

A reformational investors club, anyone?

A Christian labor/labour union, anyone?

A round of beers at the local pub, anyone?, to discuss these pressing concerns that plague us and have us looking over our shoulders to see if the sky is falling.  Don't jump at the start of the next crisis or when your bank fails.  Remember the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is there as a safety net (thank God for regulation in that respect at least?).  Yes, we need strong reform and wise regulation of our financial institutions, because everyone, not just investors, are hurt in the purse and wallet when malfeasance spreads in societal spheres mentioned, hurt as well as our bank accounts, when the volatility heats up.  Somebody is making a killing, and somebody is getting killed.

Oh by the way, aside from the semiotics of the cartoon pix, the webcomic satire, the analytics of the situation also appear on MarketWatch today in a synthesis regarding developments by Steve Goldstein, "US stock futures jump on China, Europe, BP jitters" (June1,2k10).

-- EconoMix

Full disclosure:  I own no stocks in any company, my pension is small, and I am to be (ac)counted among the poorer of the sisters and brothers reformational in the h+ly industrialized West.  Not poor from the standpoint of reformationals in Africa and Latin America, for instance.