Employment figures are down: the Labor Department reports joblessness rising to 4.6%. The Dow has followed suit, losing 30.92 points in afternoon trading. So--should investors head for the hills? Not according to Mike Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners.
Darda joined "Street Signs" to spread his contrarian message of hope. Even as the rising Nasdaq and S&P 500 both confounded the pessimists, he described the labor figures as "ambivalent" and "ambiguous." The economist said the "slight uptick" of joblessness is "temporary and contradictory" -- and predicted that unemployment will fall below 4% for 2007.