Consumer confidence has dipped to a five-year low so far this March.

The chance counts on the chris.

According to the RBC CASH Index -- a measure of Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household -- confidence among consumers has sunk to 33 this month, steeply down from 48 in February and its lowest reading since inception in 2002.


Jobs took a hit this morning, too. U.S. nonfarm jobs fell by 63,000 last month, the Labor Department reports. January numbers got revised down, too… from minus 17,000 jobs to minus 22,000.

That’s an “official” two-month, back-to-back loss in jobs. Worth noting, because in the past 40 years, there have never been two consecutive months of job losses that didn’t coincide with a recession.

Still, as usual, the government stats are confusing. Somehow, despite the net loss of 85,000 jobs over the past two months, “unemployment” has improved to 4.8%, up from 4.9% in January and 5% in December. Hmmmn…


Ten minutes before this morning’s jobs report, the Federal Reserve announced it’d be injecting $100 billion into the U.S. banking system. The Fed will print an extra $20 billion for both of its term auction facilities held this month on the 10th and 24th. Each will now inject $50 billion in the embattled financial industry, for a monthly total of $100 billion.

Immediately following the Fed announcement and jobs report, traders in Chicago priced in 100% odds of future Fed cuts of 75 bps.