“U.S. stock futures quickly pared gains Friday after a worse-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report,” Andrea Tse reports for TheStreet. “‘There is nothing good in this report,’ said David Ader, strategist at CRT Group, soon after the report was released Friday.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that 96,000 jobs were added to the U.S. work force in August, far below the addition of 125,000 jobs that economists were expecting. Meanwhile, the report showed that the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1%; economists had expected the unemployment rate to stay at 8.3%,” Tse reports. “In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 1 cent to $23.52. Hourly earnings were forecast to have risen 0.2%.”
Tse reports, “Amazon on Thursday launched a host of new Kindle Fire and Kindle products. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD family is an attempt to take market share from Apple’s iPad. Apple is in talks to license music for a custom-radio service similar to the one operated by Pandora Media, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported.”
MacDailyNews Note: See: Apple in talks to create Pandora rival – September 7, 2012
Read more in the full article here.
Lucia Mutikani reports for Reuters, “Nonfarm payrolls increased only 96,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, that was because so many Americans gave up the hunt for work.”
“‘This weak employment report, in jobs, wages, hours worked and participation is probably the last piece the Fed needs before launching another round of quantitative easing next week,’ said Joseph Trevisani, chief market strategist at Worldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey,” Mutikani reports. “The economy has experienced three years of growth since the 2007-09 recession, but the expansion has been grudging and the jobless rate has held above 8 percent for more than three years — the longest stretch since the Great Depression.”
“The weak tenor of the employment report was also emphasized by revisions to June and July data to show 41,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported. In addition, the labor force participation rate, or the percentage of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one, fell to 63.5 percent — the lowest since September 1981,” Mutikani reports. “A total of 368,000 people gave up looking for work in August, the household survey showed.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note:
We are not expecting the economies in Europe or the natural resource based countries including Australia, Brazil and Canada to improve from what we saw in the June quarter… We saw no obvious evidence of the economy impacting our sales in China in the June quarter or in the U.S., but we are reading the same things that you all are about these economies. So we will have to see. – Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer responding to analyst during Q312 earnings conference call, July 24, 2012
ALL TIME HIGH
681.18 4.91(0.73%) 10:11AM EDT – Nasdaq Real Time Price
APPL is doing just fine.
Have we jumped the shark here on relevancy or would this article appear here in a non-election year?
This article is obviously relevant. The U.S. is a significant portion of Apple’s sales.
Well that cleared it right up for me. Thanks or the valuable insight.
Simply as an AAPL shareholder, this article is completely relevant.
The only person who would be upset at seeing this news here would be an Obama supporter. So, let me ask you, why are you so fscking gullible and stupid?
A Republican, who puts up an ad which has figures that have been repeatedly debunked by sites like Politifact, is asking someone else if they’re gullible? That’s rich.
More childish name calling from a right winger? That’s expected.
Believing that your candidate, who hasn’t even revealed his economic policies much less his tax returns, has any clue how to fix that mess his party created? That’s just plain pathetic.
Romney’s plan is here:
http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2012/08/mitt-romneys-plan-stronger-middle-class01
You can have his tax return to use to make nasty negative attack ads after the election or when Obama releases his college records, whichever comes first.
his point being: overall trend is steadily upward…but we don’t see those articles.
If you think what is happening in the U.S. is “upward,” you’re blind.
Millions of jobs lost in Bush’s last year alone. Nothing but gains since Obama’s policies have taken effect. Romney wants to return to the Bush policies. I’d say we’re moving forward. Nobody ever said it’d be an easy road, but at least we’re making progress. You don’t fix eight years of failure overnight.
As is Google! WOW. What will Google be worth once in reaches the same maturity as Apple and MSFT? Outstanding shares are well short of Apple at this point in time but…. Google is in my opinion the most prolific US success story in the last 25 years and not Apple. Apple deferred paying dividends for almost 18 years, Apple settled a dispute with MSFT by way of a 150 million dollar arrangement to stay afloat. Google has just rocked it out since its inception and who knows but they could hit $1000.00 share price but this time next year.
From the Reuters article:
“Jobs growth slowed sharply in August… dealing a blow to President Barack Obama as he seeks re-election.”
B.O. is in for a very rude awakening. I love that he thinks he has a good chance for re-election. What a shock he’s in for. 2010 will look like a victory for the Democrat Party after they see what 2012 delivers.
“..the jobless rate has held above 8 percent for more than three years — the longest stretch since the Great Depression.”
Yes, we can’t.
The alternative is to give more tax cuts to the wealthy job creators. The more they have the more jobs they can create.
I think the middle class should pay more so the money can flow up to the rich so they can create jobs.
The poorer you are the more money you should be willing to donate to the rich so they will have more money to hire you.
Maybe all of us Republicans should create a special fund that we can contribute to and have all this money go to the Job Creators. When the wealthy job creators get all that money, I am sure they will hire us first. Let the Democrats keep their money and pay less taxes, who cares about them.
All that matters is that us Republicans support our Wealthy so they can create jobs for us. If I give all my money to Romney, he should have enough money to hire me. That proves that the more money the wealthy have the more we can work for them.
Let’s all contribute, shall we?
evidently, you cannot read:
“..the jobless rate has held above 8 percent for more than three years — the longest stretch since the Great Depression.”
Yes, we can’t.
Humorous, but that is not the alternative to Obama. This is the alternative:
The Romney-Ryan plan:
Reducing and stabilizing federal spending is essential, but breathing life into the present anemic recovery will also require fixing the nation’s tax code to focus on jobs and growth. To repair the nation’s tax code, marginal rates must be brought down to stimulate entrepreneurship, job creation, and investment, while still raising the revenue needed to fund a smaller, smarter, simpler government. The principle of fairness must be preserved in federal tax and spending policy.
Individual Taxes
America’s individual tax code applies relatively high marginal tax rates on a narrow tax base. Those high rates discourage work and entrepreneurship, as well as savings and investment. With 54 percent of private sector workers employed outside of corporations, individual rates also define the incentives for job-creating businesses. Lower marginal tax rates secure for all Americans the economic gains from tax reform.
– Make permanent, across-the-board 20 percent cut in marginal rates
– Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends, and capital gains
– Eliminate taxes for taxpayers with AGI below $200,000 on interest, dividends, and capital gains
– Eliminate the Death Tax
– Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
Corporate Taxes
The U.S. economy’s 35 percent corporate tax rate is among the highest in the industrial world, reducing the ability of our nation’s businesses to compete in the global economy and to invest and create jobs at home. By limiting investment and growth, the high rate of corporate tax also hurts U.S. wages.
– Cut the corporate rate to 25 percent
– Strengthen and make permanent the R&D tax credit
– Switch to a territorial tax system
– Repeal the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
More info here.
First of all, income tax is stupid. How about a VAT like Europe. You want a fair system then all people should pay for what they use, not for what they get or have.
If I am poor and pay 20,000 for a car I pay 2,000 in taxes, if I pay 100,000 for a car I pay 10,000 in taxes. What is wrong with that (the 10% is for example only, I have no idea what the tax should be).
Can you please explain to me how cutting the taxes on Corporations who are having record profits and have Billions of dollars will create more jobs?
I am a small business owner myself. I can say that when they RAISE taxes I have a bigger tendency to hire people.
What I don’t spend on people I end up having to give to the government. If they RAISED my taxes to 100% I would take every extra penny I had at the end of the year and hire somebody. If my taxes were ZERO, I’d leave that money in the bank. What would you do?
Are you telling me that the higher taxes go, the more you would hoard your cash and give it to government at the end of the year?
Am I stupid or are you? Have you ever run a business before and had to pay corporate tax?
“Simply as an AAPL shareholder, this article is completely relevant.
The only person who would be upset at seeing this news here would be an Obama supporter. So, let me ask you, why are you so fscking gullible and stupid?”
Wow! You are so insightful! And the name calling is what really convinced me to sway to your POV!
Seriously, this is site is called MacDailyNews. There is no Mac relevant news in the article. Yes. It reveals a negative report on the U.S. Economy. On the very same day that Apple sick hits an all time high. Does no one else see those two stories are juxtaposed?
Look, I don’t care what anybody’s political affiliation is, and mine is none of your damn business, the way it should be.
I just want my Apple news site to, you know, have news about Apple. If I want news about the economy in general, I think here may one, or possibly two other places to find that info on then net. Just guessing there.
In any event, absurd presumptions and name calling are certainly the most effective means of argumentation I’ve ever encountered. Keep up the good work!
If you do not like an article, skip it. There are plenty more that may allow you to live in your fantasy world.
Don’t hit it at least six times, commenting thrice, so far.
And now for some of the most truthful satire you’ll ever read:
CHARLOTTE, NC—With the 2012 Democratic National Convention now under way in Charlotte, Beltway observers are reporting that the mood inside the Time Warner Cable Arena remains spirited and optimistic, despite a noticeable lack of the delusional, completely-out-of-touch-with-reality magic that characterized the event four years ago.
“While it’s an honor to be here, I have to say the mood on the floor just doesn’t have that same exhilarating spark of runaway optimism and absolute detachment from reality that was so thrilling back in 2008,” said Illinois delegate Erin Carol, referring to the last DNC, in which a record number of supporters came together as one under completely illusory ideals of hope and change. “I still support the president, of course, but admittedly I don’t quite feel as though I’m being caught up in this big, stirring wave of entirely imaginary progress the way I did four years ago.”
“Hopefully at some point the convention will start to recapture that old enchanting and utterly deceptive feeling that America is on the cusp of a better and brighter tomorrow,” Carol added.
According to sources, none of the students in attendance appeared to be discussing proposals for college debt-relief with quite the same degree of unthinking, asinine fervor as they did in 2008, nor did the older convention-goers seem quite as transfixed by the magic spell of actually believing they could retire with financial stability.
Moreover, not a single woman has thus far beamed with a comparable level of unfounded hope at the prospect of an equal pay bill, or excitedly, albeit idiotically, discussed the possibility of not leaving behind a thoroughly ravaged planet for their children and grandchildren.
“Obviously, people are never going to be seized by the exact same patently bullshit sense of destiny they were last time around, but I would like to see this convention have at least a little more of the totally deceptive electricity we saw in Denver,” convention attendee David Lowell said. “I think maybe in the next day or two people will really start to build up to moronically thinking real change is finally on its way.”
Political analysts have said that if Obama wants to regain momentum, he must use the 2012 convention to reproduce the spirit of unexamined and wholly unearned confidence that propelled millions of deluded young people to the polls in 2008, and must persuade those who voted for him four years ago that their sad, childlike trust was not misplaced.
In addition, sources confirmed that in order to recapture the nonsensical, preposterous magic of Denver, DNC organizers will have to create a program in which starry-eyed promises of bipartisanship, economic recovery, and relief for the middle class will be received with the same feeling of moronic glee that pervaded Mile High Stadium.
“It’s definitely going to be tough to restore the misguided enthusiasm and baseless belief in a new tomorrow to the levels we saw four years ago,” said 54-year-old Linda Morrison, an Obama campaign volunteer. “Then again, if Obama gives a great speech on Thursday, and really wows people with the stirring, if ultimately meaningless, power of his words, then maybe we can be filled with the kind of foolish idealism that carried us through in 2008.”
Added Morrison, “I’m certainly open to it.”
The Onion, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
It’s not an issue of not liking an article. It’s the issue of titling yourself a news site reporting on one thing and then reporting another. If you want to be a blog – then be a blog and not call yourself a news site. In case you didn’t know, there is a difference. I don’t go to ESPN expecting coverage of RNC convention.
Either you’re a journalist and you report news or you’re a blog and you post whatever you want to support an agenda. Just FYI, that second thing is NOT news. Just make a decision. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
This article is entirely germane to Apple Inc.
Please keep in mind that, as Mark Twain said, there are three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
The 8.1% unemployment rate means that out of those people who are still looking for a job, 8.1% of them are unemployed. This doesn’t count those who have given up looking for a job. Although the government doesn’t publish the unemployment rate that measures “all employable persons who don’t have a job,” many estimates put that rate at almost double the reported unemployment rate; no serious estimate counts it at under 10%.
The underemployment rate (U-6) is around 15.3% in the United States.
http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm
The current U.S. president is a failure on an unprecedented scale.
It’s time for a competent, proven manager to take over.
“The current US president is a failure”. Did congress have anything to with the mess we are in?
So should the article itself be moved over to “Opinion” or just the commenters?
The link between this and Apple are tenuous at best, with just a tiny blurb about the upcoming reveal. That means this post is purely politically motivated, which doesn’t belong on an Apple fan site. If I want politics, I’ll go to a political site. If I want spin that tells me that GAINING jobs, no matter how many, is a BAD thing (versus losing hundreds of thousands per month under Republican rule), I’ll go to Fox News.
But after seeing the sad depths the people who run this site will go to in order to drum up clicks and smear their right wing feces, I’m taking this site out of my Bookmarks Bar. I won’t be back.
See you in 2016!
Re: The Many comments about the US economy.
1- The US exists in a global economy which is in recession. China is slipping steadily into recession as is Germany, despite these two countries largely sidestepping the worst of the Recession that started in 2007 and continues. If Germany and China are slipping and most of the rest of our large trading partners are still in recession, what surprises you that we have a weak economy.
2- In the United States consumers that do have jobs are following a general trend along these lines:
a- Paying down personal debt and not adding to the balance.
b- Increasing personal savings rates.
c- Avoiding large purchases (durable goods) on an elective basis.
d- Spending less on family occasions, back to school and holidays.
e- Taking fewer or shorter, vacations.
3- Employers are adding fewer jobs relative to demand, instead adding overtime hours for existing employees. Employers adding headcount are going with more part-time positions instead of more expensive full-time workers.
4- Banks are still largely very tight with credit to both consumers and small business. This despite the ability of most banks to borrow for next to nothing from the Federal Reserve. Lots of zombie banks are still sucking on the Fed’s tit.
5- The huge inventory of unoccupied houses abandoned or repossessed is still shrinking slowly in all but a few markets. Given job uncertainty and tightened credit, the outlook for clearing the overhang in supply is slow and long.
6- Individual investors are largely avoiding the stock markets like they have the plague. The heads I win tails you lose rigged markets have burned and turned off a generation of small investors with only a few exceptions. Apple investors are an outlier in this.
None of this is Obama’s fault and none of this can be easily changed by any other occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue- especially if the teabaggers retain control of the House.