Instant View: Jobless claims drop to five-year low

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

COMMENTS:

MICHAEL STRAUSS, CHIEF ECONOMIST, COMMONFUND, WILTON,

CONNECTICUT:

"A very simple thing, the economy's doing better. So that's the first stage. There are times, and I do think that's the bigger story. Though, that claims can be a little bit distorted at the start of the year.

"So that could make them a little bit lower, but I think the biggest thing is, very simple, it's the economy. The economy is structurally doing a little bit better. Now, it may not show up in the first print of GDP for the fourth quarter.

HUGH JOHNSON, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF HUGH JOHNSON ADVISORS LLC IN ALBANY, NY:

"The claims numbers are clearly a big surprise and were very good numbers. Most of us after last week had been expecting some sort of an increase from the 335000 in the prior week. But this was a big surprise, we saw an ongoing decline in claims - a big surprise and a very good surprise.

"Claims are an important component of the index of leading economic indicators and tell us where employment is going and these numbers imply that we may get a good employment number for the month of January when it is released in early February.

You don't know for sure because the statistical correlation is not precise, but they imply we may have a good employment number for the month of January."

JOHN CANALLY, ECONOMIST/INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, LPL FINANCIAL, BOSTON:

"I love to say it's an improvement. Early part of the year you tend get these distortions. You have to take it with a grain of salt. You have to expect a rise in claims in the second half of January. But it's moving in the right direction. This is telling us the labor market is improving slightly."

ANDREW GRANTHAM, ECONOMIST, CIBC WORLD MARKETS, TORONTO:

"The latest figures are a positive indicator that net employment growth could have accelerated in next week's payroll figures, although at this stage hiring rather than firing is the main determinant of payroll growth. The better than expected data should be beneficial to stocks, and weigh on fixed income."

STEPHEN STANLEY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, PIERPONT SECURITIES, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT:

"This is mostly noise not a signal. The move last week and this week are biased on the low side due to seasonal factors. They will likely pop back up. I don't think the labor market has improved much because other indicators haven't shown hirings picking up. The jobs market is just treading water at this point."

JOSEPH TREVISANI, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, WORLDWIDEMARKETS, WOODCLIFF LAKE, NEW JERSEY:

"The two week improvement in initial claims is not yet a trend but it may reflect a better, less partisian atmosphere in Washington and the lack of drama over the debt limit increase and employers more willing to plan for the future."

MARKET REACTION: BONDS: U.S. bond prices pared gains

FOREX: The dollar extended gains versus yen, climbing to a session peak of 89.80 yen and was last at 89.74, up 1.3 percent on the day.

GRAPHIC: Jobless claims graphic - U.S. jobless claims: New claims for unemployment fell last week to 330,000 - the lowest since January 2008. For the week ended January 12, continuing claims fell to 3.16 million. http://link.reuters.com/xew34t

(Americas Economics and Markets Desk; +1-646 223-6300)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jobless-claims-drop-five-low-135235931--business.html

jon jones rashad evans ufc jones vs evans watergate mlb pregnant man outside lands 2012 lineup beloved

FOR KIDS: Cool Jobs: Delving into dung

Scientists uncover fascinating secrets through he study of animal feces

By Roberta Kwok

Web edition: January 24, 2013

Enlarge

Sam Wasser?s team has trained dogs to search for the poop of rare animals. Here, a dog named Mason finds such droppings in Brazil.

Credit: Matt Baker

Beginning in the late 1970s, Sam Wasser spent years following wild yellow baboons across Tanzania, a country in Africa. Wasser wanted to measure chemicals called hormones in the female monkeys to better understand their reproduction. But the biologist didn?t want to stress the baboons by capturing the animals and sampling their blood.

Then an idea struck Wasser: What if he measured the hormones in baboon droppings? ?One thing I knew about following baboons is they?re pooping a lot,? recalls Wasser, who now directs the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Feces fascinate scientists tackling other topics too. Some scientists search for ancient poop left by animals that have gone extinct. Quite a few even study critters that dine on dung. Sure, feces may not be pleasant. Still, the researchers profiled here believe the knowledge they derive outweighs any drawbacks.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Cool Jobs: Delving into dung

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347771/title/FOR_KIDS_Cool_Jobs_Delving_into_dung

safety not guaranteed lifehouse al gore la dodgers lawrence o donnell magic johnson jetblue pilot

Multifamily Construction Leading the Recovery | Daily Business News

Home
> Advocacy, Business, Economy > Multifamily Construction Leading the Recovery

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) informs MHProNews multifamily will continue to lead the recovery of the overall housing market in the coming years, now standing at 70 percent of the way back to a sustainable level. NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe says, ?We are forecasting construction of 299,000 new multifamily residences in 2013. While this is an improvement from just a few years ago, it is still well below the 350,000 units that are required to keep supply and demand in balance.? Although tight credit continues to be somewhat of an obstacle, as does the rising cost of building materials, Lance Swank of the Sterling Group in Mishawaka, Ind. says, ?The market continues to improve as new household formations generate demand, especially in the market-rate rental segment. There is also a change in attitude toward renting?people like the flexibility it gives and the option to be able to easily move to another city or state for a job opportunity.?

Categories: Advocacy, Business, Economy Tags: attitude, building materials, chief economist, David Crowe, flexibility, household, Housing Market, job opportunity, mishawaka, multifamily construction, NAHB, National Association of Home Builders, obstacle, segment, sterling group, supply and demand, sustainable level, swank, tight credit

Source: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/daily-business-news/multifamily-construction-leading-the-recovery/

conversion disorder the chronicle spinal stenosis the forgotten man mike jones just friends chronicle

I Don?t Drink

Alcohol isn?t just a drink, it?s a rite of passage

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

I don't drink alcohol the way other people don't eat oysters, or don?t start the day with a cup of coffee. I don't drink because I don't like it, I never have. But the difference between me and people who don?t eat oysters is that I have to explain my choice?and I've had to for 20 years.

Alcohol isn?t just a drink, it?s a rite of passage. Forget getting your period, or your voice finally breaking?being an adult in North America means being legal. The irony being that alcohol is essentially childhood in a bottle. For a few bucks, you get a trip back to the carefree days of slurred speech, impaired balance and nonexistent inhibitions. Who?d turn down a bargain like that?

"You just don't like it or ..." is generally the response I get when I abstain. The ellipsis, along with the furrowed brow, covers everything from a bad case of alcoholism to a bad case of religious zealotry. A female friend of mine whose uncle owns a bar and who recently stopped drinking, added, "people always ask me if I'm pregnant, which makes me want to have a drink."

It?s not that I haven?t tried alcohol. I have. I've tried it more times than I would ever try anything else I know I don't like. And I still don't like it. My mom recently told me that when I was a toddler she was once in the bath with her eyes closed, and when she opened them she found her glass of Bailey's gone. Apparently, when she asked where it went, I yelled from the hallway, "Chocolate milk!" (Despite that bathtub cocktail, my parents barely drank. ?Neither mom nor dad were particularly big drinkers,? my brother recently reminded me as we both considered why neither of us drink. ?They tended not to keep alcohol in the house, so it's not something we associated with adulthood or anything else.?) In addition to that premature shot of Bailey?s, I?ve given beer, wine, and hard liquor a chance. And I still don?t like to drink.

In high school, I lied about why I never drank. "I don't want to lose control,? I said. The truth?I don?t want to be like you?would no doubt have been less palatable. I remember one kid, eyes filled to the brim with Molson Canadian, asking me, "Don't you want to know what's going on in my head right now?" And, well, the joke kind of wrote itself. According to my best friend at the time, who I consulted for this piece, I spent my teen years looking "uncomfortable and a little bit disgusted" with everyone. "I guess I felt like I was disappointing you," she said. "But I was like, 'Hrm, I'm gonna go get drunk anyway.' "

I grew out of the disappointment but not the disgust. When I finally elbowed my way past the high school meat heads and into university (more meat heads!), I still couldn?t stomach the flavor of fermented what-have-you enough to benefit from the euphoria it afforded. These days, I use that excuse more than any other because it seems to be the one that everyone can understand. In an episode of the U.K. sitcom Peep Show, for instance, socially awkward anti-hero Mark Corrigan, struck with a case of insomnia, bemoans having to suck down fermented grain mash instead of something a little sweeter. "Ahh! Horrible whiskey," he says. "Still, midnight down the bar, can?t exactly have a chocolate milkshake, can I?"

I am the midnight milkshake drinker. According to my boyfriend, I regularly replace alcohol with food. Apparently I ask to see the dessert menu every time I accompany him to the bar. Presumably, the drunker he gets, the fatter I get. When I asked if he ever wished I drank, he emphatically denied it. "I see it as a bonus that I don't have to worry that you are choking on your own vomit down an alleyway when you're not back 'til late," he said. "I just know you've collapsed in a cake shop." (I never said I had self-control?sugar is my drug of choice.)

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5186b4aff1b9d476c7f336f50ee41ec9

underworld awakening haywire dog the bounty hunter tacoma narrows bridge weather nyc open marriage department of justice

NRA?s LaPierre criticizes inauguration speech

A day after Barack Obama delivered his inaugural address, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre criticized the president's message.

"Yesterday in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and he talked about inalienable rights," LaPierre said during a speech Tuesday at a hunting and conservation awards ceremony in Reno, Nev. "I believe he made a mockery of both."

During his inaugural speech on Monday, Obama said Americans shouldn't "mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics or treat name-calling as reasoned debate."

"Absolutes do exist, words do have specific meaning in language and in law," LaPierre countered Tuesday.

"We believe we deserve, and have every right to, the same level of freedom that our government leaders keep for themselves, and the same capabilities and same technologies that criminals use to prey upon us and our families," he continued. "That means we believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic technology."

"No government gave them to us and no government can take them away," the NRA leader added.

LaPierre's comments come on the heels of the last week's unveiling of a set of legislative proposals and executive actions by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden formulated in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead.

[Related: White House slams NRA ad using Obama's daughters]

The day before the package was unveiled, the NRA released a controversial web ad that used Obama's daughters to criticize the president on gun control, calling Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for allowing Secret Service protection for daughters even as he calls for tighter gun laws.

The White House called the ad ?repugnant and cowardly."

Last month, during a press conference to address the shootings in Newtown, LaPierre suggested that a "good guy with a gun" should be stationed at every school in the country. Two days later on "Meet the Press," LaPierre blasted critics of his plan.

?If it?s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said. ?I think the American people think it?s crazy not to do it."

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce legislation later this week to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons.

The "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013," which centers on banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices?actions backed by President Obama?will be introduced during a press conference on Thursday morning in Washington. Feinstein will be joined by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, law enforcement officers, and representatives from gun safety and gun violence groups, among others.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/nra-responds-obama-inauguration-speech-174700777--election.html

the curious case of benjamin button secret service prostitute rich ross april 20 jennifer love hewitt secret service prostitution 4 20

My husband and I have been looking for a new home. ... - Zillow ...

Your real estate agent has a fiduciary duty to represent you and not be influenced by outside forces.? It is often difficult when looking at a variety of homes to avoid homes from your own brokerage, especially if it is a large one.? Often the listing agent will be from a different office, and some offices themselves are so big it's hard to know anyone.?

The listing agent isn't likely to share information that will impact their client in a negative way, and neither with the buyer's agent.? In fact, in my experience, agents are even more careful as it pertains to confidentiality of information so as not to cross that line.

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/My-husband-and-I-have-been-looking-for-a-new-home-We-decided-on-New-Construction-found-a-realtor/475346/

detroit red wings jose canseco zimmerman derek fisher lyrid meteor shower hippocrates andrew breitbart

World stocks fall ahead of US debt ceiling vote

BANGKOK (AP) ? World stock markets fell Wednesday ahead of a U.S. vote on raising the nation's borrowing limit.

Analysts said, however, that stock markets have room for gains if U.S. lawmakers make progress on raising the debt ceiling. The House is set to vote on a motion to increase the nation's $16.4 trillion borrowing authority for three months.

Without congressional action, the Treasury sometime in late February or early March will not have enough money to pay for all of its obligations, creating the possibility of a first-ever default on the government's debts.

"A vote is expected today, and if it is passed as expected it should clear the very short term obstacles for risk appetite, although battles on automatic spending cuts and the budget itself are not so long away," said analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in a market commentary.

European stock markets were mostly down in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell slightly to 6,179.17. Germany's DAX rose 0.1 percent to 7,702.29. France's CAC-40 lost 0.1 percent at 3,737.44.

Wall Street stocks appeared to be headed lower. Dow Jones industrial futures fell 0.1 percent to 13,680. S&P 500 futures shed 0.2 percent to 1,486.10.

Stocks in Japan reacted negatively for a second day to the central bank's plans for shoring up the economy.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo tumbled 2.1 percent to close at 10,486.99, a day after the Bank of Japan set its target inflation rate at 2 percent and said it would undertake open-ended asset purchases starting in 2014. Some analysts said investors were disappointed that the central bank didn't take more aggressive measures.

Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong, said the Bank of Japan's latest efforts won't reverse two decades of stagnant growth without addressing the country's budget deficit and public debt, which ballooned under years of efforts to stimulate the economy.

"They are not doing anything to address the problem. They are just using the same old methods, of printing money to sustain economic growth. If you use that too often, it will lose its efficacy," Lun said.

South Korea's Kospi shed 0.8 percent to 1,980.41. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 23,635.10. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 bucked the trend, rising 0.2 percent to 4,787.80.

Among individual stocks, BHP Billiton rose 1.3 percent in Sydney after the mining giant's half-year iron ore production results exceeded expectations. Japan's Kobe Steel plummeted 6.5 percent while banking giant Nomura Holdings fell 4.5 percent.

Strong earnings reports from big U.S. companies helped push the Dow Jones industrial average to its eighth gain in nine sessions Tuesday. The gains came despite a report showing sales of previously occupied homes dipped in December from November. The news wasn't as bad as it looked, however. Sales rose last year to 4.65 million, a 9.2 percent increase from the previous year and the most in five years.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 8 cents to $96.59 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The February contract, which expired Tuesday, rose 68 cents to close at $96.24 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3298 from $1.3317 in New York on Tuesday. The dollar fell to 88.21 yen from 88.76 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-23-World%20Markets/id-6735266cfcd54528b57905d5be942d38

wrestlemania results womens final four josh hutcherson google april fools office space shell houston open mega millions winners