01 Apr 2011 ‘Grossly Wrong?’

Indications are that the US economy maintains sufficient momentum to avoid a double dip recession. Non-farm payrolls rose by 216,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate inched down from 8.9% to 8.8%. Domestic stocks, as measured by the MSCI US Broad Market Index, were up 5.8% for the first quarter of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 6.4% for its best first-quarter since 1999. The Fed, eyeing economic strength might be thinking about increasing rates sooner rather than later as well. Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said it was “certainly possible” for interest rates to be raised by more than half a percentage point this year.