Futures: Why They're Lower Right Now

Futures lower this morning for several reasons:

1) LIBOR (London Interbank Offering Rate) higher in London; this is important becuase a large amount of corporate financing is tied to it.

2) Challenger, Gray & Christmas August job cutsup 85% from July, 21.7% from same period last year.

3) ADP reported that 38,000 private sector jobs were added in August, the lowest job gain since June '03. The expansion average is 125,000.

4) COSTCO August store sales were well below analyst estimates. That is a big disappointment; COSTCO has outperformed the retailers for month on the perception that they were executing flawlessly.

Yesterday's modest move up was more important than it initially appears--the major indices are at three week highs, and technicals have improved dramatically. The Dow and the S&P are back above their 50 and 200 day moving averages. Despite the well-founded credit concerns, the S&P 500 is 65 points from its July 16th historic high.

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