Why Read: Because if I am right, Joe Kennedy may have had his shoes shined this morning. For any who do not understand the reference, recall Joe Kennedy (President John F. Kennedy's father) saying that he got out of the stock market in 1929 when the person who shined his shoes began to give him stock advice.

Commentary: I have been writing these commentaries for the past three years. Until this week I have never felt the least bit overwhelmed by the number of articles I 'picked up on' as important economic or resources news among the large number of articles and commentaries I review each morning. While I am still not in what I would describe as an 'overwhelmed position', without question my morning reviews have taken me noticeable longer in the past two weeks than they did previously. Importantly, I seem to be spending progressively more time each day. Tomorrow, Sunday and Monday will be interesting tests of this, as I have been aware for some time that the number of news articles and commentaries fall off significantly on weekend days and Mondays.

Today's news included a number of what may prove to be important negative economic markers:

• the U.S. Government released its May Jobs Report this morning. Aside from the fact that today is June 1, and one has to wonder at the accuracy of a prior month report when the current month is but eight hours old, that Job Report reported that:
  • only 69,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in May, where
  • construction jobs dropped by 28,000 in a month that normally would have seen an increase in construction jobs, and where
  • the U.S. unemployment rate is reported to have risen from 8.1% (April) to 8.2%, and where
  • the U.S. 'discouraged workers' unemployment rate (the unemployment rate that includes 'discouraged workers') rose from 14.5% (April) to 14.8%;
• economic circumstances in Spain and Greece seem to be further deteriorating; and,
• the most recent Purchasing Manager Indices in many countries show declines (with Germany being an exception).

The U.S. financial markets are down by over 1.5% in early trading this morning, while the price of physical gold has risen over U.S.$50 in the past hour to over U.S.1,600 (a 3% gain).

This is an extremely interesting time in both economic and financial markets terms. It is also a very dangerous one, or at least that seems to be the direction toward which many world and country specific economic indicators are pointing.

Today's U.S. financial market activity bears watching closely.

US Creates 69,000 New Jobs, Unemployment Rate 8.2%
Source: CNBC, Jeff Cox, June 1, 2012
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Also read: Live: Thousands Of Companies Around The World Reveal The Truth About The Global Economy (reports on world PMI indices)
Source: Business Insider, Sam Ro, June 1, 2012
Reading time: 4 minutes