Another great week is nearly in the books–and now we wait for the employment numbers to send us into the weekend. Forecasts are for 187,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.6%. Given that Powell continues to focus on employment as an important piece of data in rate hike considerations it would be nice to see a somewhat weaker number than forecast–say 150,000 new jobs–but who knows–we will know in 30 minutes.
Yesterday I noted I bought some UMH-D perpetual preferred–but I also sold 1/2 my position in closed end fund Royce Value Trust (RVT). RVT is my only CEF holding and I had held it for the better part of 6 months and had added at the lows–so I got a nice capital gain plus some dividends–I will re-buy at lower levels.
Today I am pretty sure I will do no buying today–don’t know about continued trimming–I thought this would end but as prices move higher more trimming opportunities arise.
Ellington Financial (EFC) did price their fixed-rate-reset new issue last night and the coupon is 8.625% for the 1st 5 years with the reset spread at 5.13%–pricing is for 4 million shares. The pricing term sheet is here.
Finished the week up red across the board on pretty much everything in the accounts. Still for the day all accounts were only off a 1/3% or less.
Yah it was the darn GAS bill that did it! LOL but true, every thing cost more! Gotta work to pay the bills I guess.
Will be fun to see what the media blames the 517K new jobs on? Hopefully the revised number takes it down a couple hundred thousand?
MORE 1/4’s point Fred raises coming till it breaks something.
A nice link on twitter from the Chief Economist at KPMG (Diane Swonk) on the jobs number. Some one off quirks and some longer term items.
https://twitter.com/DianeSwonk/status/1621531859719970817
Payroll numbers:
January nonfarm payrolls surges by 517K as unemployment ticks down to 3.4%
The basics of life have gotten so expensive, people have no choice but to take any job they can find.
Eladio–that sure was a shocker.
Yes it has. We had five full time employees return to work this year after retiring and four others returned on a part time basis. A friend who works in HR said there will be more coming back as soon as they can get their security clearances re- approved. I have seen one here or there change their mind about retiring, but never this many. Must have been this months $300 natural gas bill in CA that made them do it 🙂
Bill….With nat. gas presently @ $2.35, many may not show up for that first day on the new job. l.o.l
Lucky, the producers do it every time. They ramp up production and crash the price. Cushing hub has reported 6 straight weeks of increased storage probably part of that is decreased driving due to the weather. Oil is below 75 a barrel. Doesn’t really hurt the pipeline companies as they have fixed contracts but the stock prices will still drop on producers and pipeline co’s. Helps refiners with the crack spread if demand holds for refined products
This has been my belief as well.