Weak Start for Stocks

Wall Street closed yesterday with consecutive daily gains, but once again the upward momentum was relatively slight. The NASDAQ outperformed its competitors with a 0.78 percent (18.27 points) gain, followed closely by a 0.45 percent (5.17 point) increase on the S&P 500. The Dow lagged much further behind (0.03 percent, 2.95 points) but was still able to finish in the black.

Analysts with CNNMoney.com, expected to see a “weak start” on Wall Street to open the day today, but after the first hour markets were down significantly. With oil on the way up and global markets down nearly across the board, today may be a bad day for American investment.

Despite what could turn out to be a poor showing on stock and commodities indexes today, there are some positive signs in the U.S. economy.

According to Bloomberg News, the American trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in January 2010 as a result of dropping demand for foreign oil and automobiles. The trade deficit for January was $37.3 billion, down from $39.9 billion in December 2009.

A dropping trade deficit is a good sign for the United States, but the decline in January had nothing to do with growing capacity in America. The decline was related to increase oil prices and a lack of disposable income among Americans.

On top of a declining trade deficit, the national foreclosure rate also fell in both January and February 2010.

According to CNN, foreclosures dropped 10 percent from December 2009 to January 2010. Foreclosures then dropped an additional 2 percent from January to February 2010. We cannot officially declare that the foreclosure crisis is over, but we can say that it is beginning to level off.

Many homeowners are still deep in debt, and the stress on an average homeowner today is perhaps more cumbersome than it was a year ago. However, with legislative protections and foreclosure prevention programs in place, more borrowers are able to avoid losing the family home.

In other news, jobless claims in the United States dropped for the week ended March 6. First time applications dropped to 462,000 for the week ended March 6; down 6,000 from the previous period. This is not necessarily a sign that the economy is getting better, but it is a signal that there are fewer jobs left to cut. The economy has been operating on a skeleton crew for nearly two years, and there just aren’t many positions left to terminate.

At the same time that first-time applications fell, continuing applications increased by 37,000 to 4.56 million. This is a smaller figure than where we sat a year ago, but it still leaves many millions of Americans in desperate need of an option better than the unemployment register.