Labor

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestment Advice.com,

Fed Levitation

In a stark reminder of the entrenched problems facing the French economy, today police used tear gas to disperse thousands of angry activists across the nation, who are protesting new labor reforms. French rail and air traffic suffered serious disruption on Thursday after transport staff stopped work and took to the streets along with high-school students to challenge plans for a pro-business loosening of the country's protective labor laws.

For those wondering why Trump rallies tend to devolve to pugilistic matches, where even belligerent 15-year-old protesting (or perhaps "provocative" is a better word) girls end up getting pepper sprayed much to the media's fascination, the answer is Craig's List ads such as the one below, in which allegedly "I'm feelin' the Bern"-affiliated organizers provide paid positions for protesters at Trump rallies, and which provide not only shuttle buses, parking, and signs (as well as time cards) but also hand out $15/hour (as a "part-time employment") for said protest activity "

In recent weeks, the stock of IBM has staged a dramatic rebound surging from a February 11 low of $118 to $150 today, on what we previously assumed had to be another long-overdue bout of stock buybacks. However, for that to make sense, the company - already at risk of being downgraded if it did not take further cost-cutting measures to offset the additional debt interest expense - would need to engage in another round of mass layoffs.

This is precisely what happened moments ago when Germany press reported that Big Blue is cutting some 1000 jobs in Germany.

Against expectations of a 195k gain, ADP reported 200k (from a downwardly revised 205k -was 214k - in Feb). While manufacturing has been weak, Services sector job gains have been the pillar of this 'recovery' so with ISM Services Employment plumbing 2-year low depths, we simply ask Mark Zandi to explain how ADP sees such strength in that same sector. Services added 191k, goods added 9k as small businesses gained 86k jobs (the most of the cohorts)... as Zandi explains "the econmy is doing very well, ignore GDP."