The jobless claims released this morning were higher than expected, due in part to layoffs in the financial industry as well as some retail employees being let go as the holiday season faded. I would caution people not to let this mornings dissapointing jobless numbers overshadow the bigger picture on the economy which is nonetheless improving. It's going to be a bumpy ride, one saddled with setbacks and dissapointments, but the important thing to remember is that we are slowly moving in the right direction.
An example of this is that Home Depot came out this morning and said that they were going to be hiring 70,000 workers this spring! That's pretty impressive considering that's just one retail chain...it also shows that Home Depot has some confidence in the home improvement/building sector of the economy
The Financials are off to a nice start today trading up so far (as of 10 am). I do expect the markets to see a selloff today as we need to see stocks take a breather before they can continue to grind higher. If we do see the market trade down on the day, I might take that as a small opportunity to pick up some more stock (or mutual fund shares).
