- The market is a little scared today, and reason du jour is going to be strong jobs growth stoking inflation fears. Treasury prices gave up initial gains and took heavy losses Friday, pushing yields higher, after the Labor Department reported unexpectedly robust job growth for last month, alongside higher-than-expected wage inflation. Of course, we really don't have much inflation yet; but the fear of inflation is what will spook things in the short term. It'll be interesting to see how the minimum wage bump this month influences the wage numbers next month and throughout the year, too.
- Lets go to the market playbook. This week has been pretty volatile, but the Santa Claus rally is over. We're out of the monthly favorable season, with the 401(k) additions already in. So coming up we have the week ahead of options expiration, which can see some weakness. I still have my QID hedge, and it's in the green offsetting the losses elsewhere. Cash is cruising along with no worries today.
- I stayed up watching the Lakers-Kings overtime game last night. I thought Charles Barkley was hillarious doing the color for the game next to Marv. Maybe too much Barkley, but he does add to the entertainment value.
- Finished Next by Michael Crichton. It was an okay read, but nowhere near his best. Meandered around and it was kind of tough to keep track of the players. Plus, the ending was pretty abrupt. From the middle of the book on, I found myself skimming some of the genetics "articles" inserts. I found them a little distracting from the story line, because I wanted to get back to see what monkeyboy was doing. Oh, and kind of funny/clever working in of some David Bowie lyrics in there.
