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US stock market daily report (January 04, 2013, Friday)

Contributed by Millennium Traders

House lawmakers on Friday approved a $9.7 billion increase in flood insurance funds aimed at recovery efforts and for the many home and business owners flooded out by Hurricane Sandy. For areas hit by the Hurricane in October, the arrival of financial assistance has been extremely too slow. The bill gives more borrowing authority to the National Flood Insurance Program to pay nearly 115,000 pending Hurricane Sandy-related claims as well as nearly 5,000 claims unrelated to Sandy. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that the National Flood Insurance Program would run out of money next week if Congress didn't provide additional borrowing authority to pay out. claims. Lawmakers from New York and New Jersey expressed their dissatisfaction with the extended delay on the vote for assistance. "People are waiting to be paid," said Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey, whose district includes Atlantic City and many other coastal communities hard hit by the storm. "They're sleeping in rented rooms on cots somewhere, and they're not happy. They want to get their lives back on track, and it's cold outside. They see no prospect of relief." The House also scheduled separate roll call votes on an extra $51 billion in funds for January 15. Last week, U.S. Senate approved a Sandy aid package, but needed the House bill passed since a new Congress was sworn in on Thursday. Three hundred fifty four House lawmakers voted yes for the bill; 67 voted no.

The U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday that there were 155,000 jobs created during December and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.8%. The U.S. unemployment rate for November was revised to 7.8% after the Labor Department conducted their annual revision in December. The number of new jobs created in November was revised higher to 161,000 from 146,000. New jobs created in October was revised lower to 137,000 from 138,000. Health care, bars and restaurants, construction and manufacturing sectors attributed to the biggest increases in hiring during December. Reduced employment was seen in retail and government sectors. Average hourly wages rose 7 cents or 0.3%, to $23.73 and average workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday that factory orders remained unchanged during November. Factory orders during November were held down by a drop in transportation equipment, especially civilian and military aircraft. Durable goods orders in November increased by 0.8%, revised higher from 0.7% estimated two weeks ago. New orders for nondurable goods fell 0.6% after a 0.5% gain in October. During November, shipments increased 0.4% striking the fourth gain in the past five months. For the second straight month in November, inventories remained flat. Orders for capital goods - excluding defense and aircraft - rose 2.6% in November after a 3% gain in October. Shipments of core orders, a key component of investment in the gross domestic product calculations, were up 2% in the month.

The Institute for Supply Management reported growth accelerated during December in the service-sector, climbing to 56.1% from 54.7% in November. The new-orders index climbed by 1.2 percentage points to 59.3% and the employment index climbed 6 percentage points to 56.3%.