Update #3/ Week of Novemeber 30, 2009

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Wednesday! Markets are generally flat this morning after a little choppiness early. Equity markets attempted to continue their rally from the last couple trading sessions but have settled back down now at the flat line – credit markets have too. Asian markets rallied through the night last night on a follow up from our rally, maybe, and posted solid gains. Possibly this is the reason for the early morning positive start, but news from the ADP Payroll Report pretty much threw a wet blanket on any rally for today.

The ADP Employment Change Report, a precursor to the official gov’t unemployment report of late, reported that private companies laid off 169,000 workers in November. This is a bit higher than the 150K anticipated, but it is better than the 203K job losses in October. Job cuts are still on the decline, but we’re no where near job creation yet. Even this far into 2009, companies are still laying off tens of thousands of workers every month. Friday’s report from the Labor Dept is expected to show a further rise in unemployment figures . . . this report today from ADP only solidifies that concern.

The dollar is gaining strength today, and gold is too. The price of gold has gone up almost every day for the last month of trading, an amazing run to say the least. This run up in gold is perceived by some to be a sign that investors expect the stock market to give back a major portion of their gains of 2009. We’ll have to see what happens after the first of the year. It doesn’t look like we’re going to see any major corrections by the end of the month. By the way, this is last month of the decade, too . . . and what a decade it’s been! An interesting note . . . in Jan of 2001, the Dow was at 10,887 . . . the Dow as of this writing sits at 10,422 – we’ve lost about 450 points in 10 years! Funny.

OK, rates are off from yesterday morning as we saw many investors reprice yesterday afternoon. We are about .500 worse in rebate from yesterday morning’s rate sheet. I think we all could use a little break, too, these past 2 days have been overwhelmingly busy to say the least.

I will be in the office all day today. Call me here or better yet email me if you have any pricing or loan scenario questions – an have a terrific Humpday!