Not a good day for stocks. Europe is down 1.2% – 3.0% today and the US dropped 1.5% when it opened in New York.
The jobs report was just terrible. Only 69,000 new jobs were created last month. It takes nearly 100,000 new jobs just to absorb immigration, people turning working age and job changers. So the US took a step back last month. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2% and the rate that includes discouraged workers rose to 14.8%.
Chinese manufacturing slowed down to virtually no growth last month. Think about that. As I wrote yesterday they are cutting interest rates and increasing lending to spur the economy. Brazil and India are doing the same because their economies are also slowing.
Stocks are just 8 points above the 200-day moving average which often acts as support. If the market breaks cleanly down through it, that spells greater trouble ahead.
The Dow has now given back all its price gain for 2012 while the S&P 500 is still up about 3% YTD.
The manufacturing index is due out at 10:00.