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You decide! Today’s jobs announcement as reported by the Establishment Survey (CES) suggests a stark slowdown in new hiring compared to the average trend. Conversely, the Household Survey (CPS) seems to argue a continuum of the job growth story. Unquestionably, the overall employment expansion was stymied from the Government Shutdown. Also, I suspect C-Suite decision

Retail sales fell -1.2% last month, the worst December of the economic expansion, online sales declined by -3.9%. CNBC, MarketWatch, Reuters, WSJ, NYT, and forecasters inferred and inked grim warnings about the contraction in consumer spending. I decided to take a closer look. Historically, when there’s palpable fear in the air, consumers tighten their belts.

https://www.equities.com/news/will-stocks-sink-from-here?fbclid=IwAR2Cd9fY6VaKhe1Osc7ldZm3tdtE35uo8cbMaCmhyByBAiS6h96W3g-VRLM

#PositiveNews Initial unemployment claims fell to 199,000, or 0.06% of the total U.S population. This is the lowest percentage of people applying for unemployment insurance in the report’s 52-year history. Simply, more Americans are working hard versus hardly working.

#Investors — Here is an interesting scatter plot chart posted on Daily Shot. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words or dollars, that certainly is the case in this graph, issued by JP Morgan.