Posts Tagged European Central Bank

Euro-Zone Unemployment Rate Hits 10-Year High

Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Budget, Currency on July 1st, 2009

The unemployment rate in the 16 countries that use the euro rose more than expected and to the highest level for a decade in May as more companies laid off staff in a bid to survive the deepest recession since World War II, official data showed.

The euro-zone jobless rate rose to 9.5% in May from an upwardly revised 9.3% in April, the highest level since May 1999 and 2.1 percentage points higher than in May last year, the European Union’s Eurostat statistics agency said.

The increase was stronger than the market consensus estimate of a rise to 9.4% from a Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists last week. April’s jobless rate was also revised up from 9.2% reported last month.

Eurostat said 273,000 people joined unemployment queues across the euro zone in May, bringing the total number of jobless to 15 million, more than the entire populations of Austria and Ireland combined.

The rise in the number of people out of work darkens the outlook for consumer spending and suggests it may take longer for the region to recover from recession. Read the rest of this entry »

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Stocks ready to rise again

Posted by Tetyana Matychak in Favourites, Fund Markets on May 7th, 2009

Wall Street was set for a higher open Thursday after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner offered reassuring comments about U.S. banks and the government reported a 3-month low in jobless claims.

Also, Wal-Mart reported same-store sales and General Motors posted a quarterly loss that was narrower than expectations.

At 8:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were higher.

Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins in New York.

U.S. stocks surged Wednesday after early reports of the government’s so-called stress tests suggested that the major banks are better capitalized than some had thought.

Geithner further reassured investors when he said in a TV interview Wednesday night that none of the 19 banks that were tested are at risk of insolvency.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Markets in London, said that “reassuring noises” from Geithner about the financial health of the banks helped to fuel investor sentiment. Read the rest of this entry »

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