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WEEKLY QUOTE

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”
- Adam Smith

WEEKLY TIP

Financial strategies sometimes need to be revised due to career, family or lifestyle changes. So review your saving and investing approach annually. Few people do; more people should.

WEEKLY RIDDLE

What word doesn’t belong in this group: blast, paper, castle, coin, box, storm.

 Last week’s riddle:
Two fathers and two sons shopped for computers at their local big box retailer. Each bought a PC, yet they bought only three PCs total. How could this be?

 Last week’s answer:

The shoppers were a man, his son and his grandson.

227,000 NEW JOBS, BUT JOBLESS RATE STILL AT 8.3%

While unemployment levels remained unchanged in February, Labor Department data showed that nonfarm payrolls expanded by more than 200,000 positions for the third straight month. The private sector added 233,000 jobs in February, so it was basically responsible for the impressive net job gain. The underemployment rate (representing the jobless plus those settling for less than a 40-hour workweek) was 14.9% in February, a 1.8% drop from a year before. With such consistent job growth, the Federal Reserve faces less pressure to roll out another monetary stimulus.

SERVICE SECTOR GROWS IN February
The Institute for Supply Management’s service sector PMI climbed to 57.3 for February, seeing a half-percent gain. A 3.1% jump in business activity/production and a 1.8% rise in new orders were nice highlights.

LITTLE VOLATILITY AFTER GREEK BOND SWAP

On Wall Street, March 5-9 mirrored the week before: the Dow pulled back (-0.43% to 12,922.02) and the NASDAQ (+0.41% to 2,988.34) and S&P 500 (+0.09% to 1,370.87) advanced. The market was still wary of the debt deal out of the EU – last week, 86% of investors holding Greek bonds agreed to swap securities issued by the Greek government for replacement ones worth less, and collective action clauses will force about 10% more of these bondholders to do so. While this seemingly opens the door for a new €130 billion EU/IMF rescue package for Greece, it could be the last bailout Greece receives.

THIS WEEK: In addition to what goes on in Europe, we have a lot of stateside data. Monday, Urban Outfitters and Burger King issue Q4 results. On Tuesday, a Fed policy meeting concludes and February retail sales figures arrive. Wednesday, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke speaks in Nashville and Guess and Youku (China’s equivalent of YouTube) provide Q4 earnings. Besides new initial claims figures, Thursday offers February’s PPI and earnings from Ross Stores and Dole. Friday, February’s CPI arrives plus the initial March consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan; the iPad 3 also hits the shelves.

Sources: money.msn.com, bigcharts.com, treasury.gov, treasurydirect.gov – 3/9/12

Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested into directly.

These returns do not include dividends.