Media Agenda to Save Stock Market?

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I am AMAZED at the innumeracy running rampant in America.

ABC runs a story that says, in part: “U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.”  And that is one of the leads on Drudge.

Oh, and the market screams up 600 points.

Fine.  Except, we don’t find that number in top line (Summary Table A) of the US Department of Labor Report (here).  have a look:

Yes – there’s the DoL data showing that for the month the number of working was up 142,000.

The way ABC got the headline-data was by going to the (noisier) Establishment data in the B Table which is not nearly as meaningful as the Summary.  Note my three highlights:

The first highlight was the apparent basis of “312,000” jobs headlines.

Worse?  My second highlights show zeroes in November for mining, logging, and construction..

Importantly, Establishment data doesn’t tie-back neatly to the Summary.  Noisy data series.

Elsewhere, the grand market-spurring hype is that “Hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever.”  Well, sort of.  But that’s problematic in and of itself…

My highlights here show the Hispanic gain in “Employed” was up 177,000 in December.

Oh-oh.  See where this is going?  In the Ure view of Reality (backed-up by data) we see a case that is NOT in the MainStream Media – which is clearly  (to us, anyway) cheer-leading to save the Stock Market.

Since TOTAL Employment in America really was up 142,000 persons in December  and the unemployment rate rose.  That doesn’t bother anyone, I ‘suppose.

More to the point, Hispanic employment was up 177,000 persons…want to tell me what this spells for the rest of us?

Our headline might have been “Non-Hispanic Employment fell in December by 35,000 people.”  And that, dear reader does tie-back to unemployment going up.

Perhaps the MSM should stick with “standup and pancake” or go back to school.

Anyone up for a refresher on inferential statistics?  Or, how about  “How to read Descriptive Statistics?

7 thoughts on “Media Agenda to Save Stock Market?”

  1. Job gains 142,000, workforce expanded by 180,000 – Powell says nothing – no stop to rate increases and no pause in rate increases – all meant to generate headlines that game the algo’s

    • The Powell Fed makes a statement that it is willing to accommodate the markets and the Dow immediately goes up 700 points. We are already seeing the much talked about reversal of Fed policy. It didn’t take long. I predict future stagnation and volatility. The black swan has not yet appeared.

  2. Ergo, I question whether or not all of this has anything to do with daily stock market activity. It has more to do with its own dynamic and the money available for speculation

  4. I hear people getting all out of sorts about POTUS being a liar. I read more news probably than the avg. person, no TV and am having a problem figuring what they are talking about. They call him a liar but never say what the lie is or was about. Some clarification on this please.

    • Trump has made 6420 false or misleading statements. According to an article dated on November 2, 2018. I am sure that count is well over 7,000 by now. All of his lies have been fact checked and can be found on Factcheck.org. Yesterday he lied close to a dozen times in a news conference. He stated that the wall is being built in California presently. That’smfalse…that’s are doing repairs on a fence…part of regular maintenance they have been doing on fences for many decades.

      He stated that Mexico is paying for Wall as a result of the USMCA agreement. First of all that agreement has not been signed yet and second the billions and billions he said it will bring in is revenue…not tax dollars. With new tax laws in place, over 80% of that revenue goes to the corporations…a portion goes to the states and the rest is allocated as it has always been allocated. The walls portion will be in the low 5 figures…not close to the 5 billion he needs.

      He stated that most workers that aren’t getting paid as a result of the shutdown, are supporting the shutdown…there is zero data to support that. He stated that landlords will understand of the unpaid workers can’t pay rent…that is ridiculous…landlords aren’t in the charity business.

      There are so many mistatements by this con man…I could go on for pages and pages. Trump makes me sick.

      • Silly..I wonder how many lies Hillary and bill have made..

        Dam I don’t recall that

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