I’m not a big fan of awards shows. The Oscars are the only one I’ll watch, because I’m a huge movie buff. As I was watching last night, I found it to be a very telling reminder as to the current state of my social life that the only two nominated films I had seen were the animated kids movie “Up” and “The Hangover”. That pretty much says it all. On a related note, I have seen “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Horton Hears a Who”, and “Come Home Snoopy Come Home” over 20 times apiece in the last year. The mere sight of Horton fills me with rage at this point.
As I was loading up my Netflix queue last night with all these films I am dying to see, I came to the quick realization that since I had my second child, I am adding movies to my queue way faster than I can watch them anymore. With a demanding bank job, two young kids, a wife, a Cleveland sports website, a DVR loaded with shows my wife and I are behind on, and a general sports addiction that leads to a lot of time spent watching baseball, basketball, and boxing on weeknights … the quick projections show that my Netflix queue will exceed 10,000 films by spring of 2011. And this doesn’t even factor in the night a week I just pass out at 9 PM due to the sheer exhaustion caused by the rigors of the aforementioned litany of things I immerse myself into.
As to the highlights of last night, it was pretty cool seeing Kathryn Bigelow being the first female to win Best Director, with ex-hubbie and fellow nominee James Cameron sitting right in of her. Winning Best Picture as well with a film (The Hurt Locker) that grossed just 12.6 million domestically (lowest ever for a Best Pic winner). And all four of the best actor/actress nods going to first timers, with the likable and talented Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges finally breaking through to win Best Actress and Best Actor.
A couple real nice free agent signings for the Browns yesterday. The team addressed two huge needs, inking offensive lineman Tony Pashos and linebacker Scott Fujita from the Saints. Pashos will more than likely replace John St. Clair as the team’s starting right tackle, and Fujita will probably play inside next to D’Qwell Jackson at linebacker in the team’s 3-4 defense.
Temperatures in the 50’s all week. Which is great. But all Clevelanders know what this is. It’s The Setup. Everything will be melted by Wednesday. We’ll probably get about 10 days of real nice weather. Just long enough to make everyone put their guard down, and begin to think winter is over here on the north coast. Then we’ll get that one last blast of snow. Could be later this month. Could be early April. Heck, as we saw two years ago, it could be on Indians Opening Day. But at least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m sick of sitting in my house.
Quote of the day …
“Did I really earn this? Or did I just wear y’all down?” ~ Sandra Bullock, after accepting her Best Actress Oscar for her role in ‘The Blind Side’
Market …
There’s no more anticipated economic news release than the monthly national employment figures. On the first Friday of each month, the US Dept of Labor releases the # of non-farm payrolls (AKA jobs) the economy added or lost in the previous month, and they also release the revised national unemployment rate. The latest release was last Friday morning at 8:30 AM.
And for the first time in some time, the news was better than expected.
Amid expectations that the economy shed another 70,000 jobs in February, and that the national unemployment rate would rise from 9.7% to 9.8% … we found out this past Friday morning that the economy lost only 36,000 jobs in Feb, and that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7%. Doesn’t sound like a huge miss, or something that should be getting investors too excited … but there’s just so much negativity right now in the markets surrounding employment. While the markets still trade off where the actual #’s come in related to economist expectations, nearly everyone is expecting the jobs #’s to come in worse than the econo-geeks are projecting. So any jobs # that comes in slightly better than expected is going to cause a more violent reaction than one that is slightly worse than expected.
Adding to the optimism? Dec and Jan’s job #’s were both revised slightly upward as well. With the revisions, and release of the Feb #, there have been no job losses these past three months. Also, the “underemployment rate” (includes part-time workers who prefer full-time jobs and people who want to work but have given up looking for a gig) fell from 16.8% to 16.5%. Baby steps.
At the end of the day, after a somewhat volatile week last week, spent waiting for the Friday’s jobs #, mortgage rates are right about in the same spot they were in a week ago. Mortgages sold off badly after the release of the jobs #, falling 16/32 (50 bps) almost immediately before rallying back to finish the Friday session down just 8/32 (25 bps). The Dow gained about 250 points last week, most of that on Friday after the employment report.
Light week for economic news. First time jobless claims on Thurs and Retail Sales on Fri are the highlights. Also, Treasury is auctioning off 74 BILLION in treasury bonds this week, which could put upwards pressure on mortgage-backed bonds and mortgage rates.
News …
~ Business Economists See Fed Rate Hike in 6 Months
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35758558
~ Senators Wrestle with Fed Bank Oversight Issues
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35759124
~ Obama to Appeal for Public Support on Health Care
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35759550
~ How Did the Employment Report Affect Mortgage Rates?
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/consumer_rates/138619.aspx
~ Commercial Real Estate’s Challenges Evident in Cleveland’s Downtown Corridor
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/commercial_real_estates_challe.html
Comments