McJobs

Another closely watched farce, the U.S. jobs data, came in a bit better-than-expected on Friday. Upward revisions to prior month's data had the bulls focusing on the "strong" data as an excuse to push stocks higher even though the questionable data demotes another bullish thesis, a possible rate cut later in the year by Gentle Ben and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Regardless of how closely the jobs data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may or may not be, a true reflection of employment reality over in the States does not deter from the quirkiness of the report. Their Net/Birth Death Model , designed by the agency's econo-computer wonks, once again accounted for more than 100-percent of the total net new non-farm jobs supposedly created in the U.S. during the month of June. Their model is supposedly designed to estimate the number of jobs lost or created each month that their "hard count" survey is incapable of accounting for. But its interesting how frequently the Net/Birth additions have accounted for more than the total net in recent months and years; which means that their traditional survey is often registering a negative number, or actual job losses. The total net job gains in June were reported to be 132k of which 156k were attributed to their little guesstimate model. However, if indeed the jobs data is at least an impressionist view of reality, the imbalance of newly created jobs seems a bit more likely. Of the 132k of supposed new jobs, 138k (more than the net total) came entirely from the Service Providing sectors: Education and Health services, Leisure and Hospitality, and Government.

So yes, the U.S. is a jobs making machine. So long as you can fill up your tank and stock your cupboards on a hamburger server's salary, its all good. Oil spiked higher as did the 10-year Treasury rate. The ladder didn't matter. The Nasdaq closed at a fresh six-year high. Don't ask. Its weird.