http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alximP6.Eta8&pos=10

      SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Aug. 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 455,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 448,000. The 4-week moving average was 419,500, an increase of 26,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 392,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending July 26, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 2.5 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 26 was 3,311,000, an increase of 31,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,280,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,201,000, an increase of 27,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,174,000. 

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 2.975 million.

Looks like it might have hit a bottom, thinking about investing some serious $$$ into it.

I can’t see it getting much lower then it is right now. Opinions are appreciated.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=UNG#chart2:symbol=ung;range=5y;indicator=sma(50,100,200)+split+volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Thanks

David Rosenberg
Merrill Lynch Chief North American Economist

In need of a new bank - a jobs bank

“Internals of the report were as weak as the headline
The internals of the report, like its recent predecessors, were at least at weak as
the headline. The benchmark revisions were mixed but December was taken
down to -577,000 from -524,000 respectively. With all the revisions and the
current estimate for January, the economy has now shed 2.5 million jobs in just
the past four months. Compare that to the 1.8 million average decline we
typically see through the entire 10-month recessions of the past. We exceeded
that in just the past four months alone!
Job losses very broad based
The diffusion index is down to an all-time low of 25.3%, which means that for
every company adding to their payrolls, three are in cutback mode. The
comparable figure for manufacturing, by the way, is down to an all-time low of
7%, which means that businesses in the sector that are cutting jobs are
outnumbering the ones adding to payrolls by a 14-to-1 ratio. In the last recession,
the low in this factory diffusion index was 10 and in the early 1990s the trough
was 17 – just to put the current 7 figure into perspective.
Household survey showed a record 1.24 million job plunge
The companion Household survey was even worse than the payroll report, if that
is possible – showing a record 1.24 million job plunge. The data go back to 1950,
and we have never seen something like that before; even in per cent terms
(-0.9%), there has not been a decline of this magnitude in over 40 years. And
almost all of the January plunge was in full-time employment – down an eyepopping
1.1 million, taking the cumulative loss since the recession began in late
2007 to 6.1 million, which is unprecedented. In a “normal” recession, we lose a
little more than 2-1/2 million full-time positions. We have already lost nearly three
times that amount and counting.
Unemployment rate for full-time workers spiked to 8%
And, it is full-time employment that ultimately drives income, confidence and
spending. While the unemployment rate jumped 0.4 percentage points for the
second month in a row to 7.6%, the highest since September 1992, the rate for
full-time workers spiked from 7.5% to 8%, which was the highest since January
1984.”

http://icemanxtrendtrading.blogspot.com/

i.e. If you’re on the right track financially, what’s the most you should spend on a car?  I’d prefer to accumulate a lot of capital relative to our income ASAP, but I know we need to find balance in our lives.  My wife would like to buy a luxury car that costs the equivalent of 20% of our household income.  Is 20% too much?  Are there too many factors to create “rules of thumb” for car purchases?

I’ve shown her the numbers illustrating the cost to our net worth 30 years from now considering the different spending scenarios.  She wants to enjoy some of the fruit of our labor today, rather than waiting 30 years.

What looks good these days?

I read a few prior threads after doing a search, but the most I got out of it was that IPO is the go-to guy for this.  So, what do you say?

- have no interest in sinking the cash in CA real estate,
- no interest in an expensive car (because you’ve already owned several and its out of your system),
- have several hundred already in the stock market,
- currently do not own a home but have the additional reserves to buy one whenever,
- have zero debt,
- have already made significant contributions to charities

Some ideas:
- use the cash to buy/finance a couple of rentals outside CA,
- start your own business,
- day trade for living,
- invest in someone else’s business,
- ??

What would you do with the $100k?