Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Lakshman Achuthan and Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer Anirvan Banerji co-wrote and submitted an op-ed piece on CNN which ran today. In it, they stated that the double-dip recession many have feared is actually, “not going to happen.” According to Achuthan and Banerji, leading business cycle indicators are moving away from recession and following the same patterns as they did after World War II, and those did not result in recession. This indicates that although economic recovery is slow, it is not indicative of a double-dip. If you’d like to read the full piece, you can find it on the ECRI website.
Initial jobless claims from last week decreased 21,000 from the previous week, which reduced the 4-week moving average by 5,500. You can see the full report here.
Despite the good news about the recession and jobs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down most of the day. By the end of the day, the Dow fell a total of 17.33 points to 11,108.95. The Nasdaq rose 4.11 points to 2,507.37 and the S&P fell 1.22 to 1,183.67.
European markets were up today while Asian markets were mixed.
Stocks in the news: Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ), Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT).
