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</p>
<p>[Gallup:</a> Unemployment Rate Jumps from 7.7% to 8.9% In 30 Days](<a href=“http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/21/Gallup-Unemployment-jumped-from-77-to-89]Gallup:”>http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/21/Gallup-Unemployment-jumped-from-77-to-89)</p>
<p>If this is accurate, we may be in deep you know what.</p>
<p>How can unemployment jump so much in just 30 days? That is awful.</p>
<p>If you download Gallups data from Jan 7, 2010 to Aug 20, 2013, youll notice that unemployment rate started inching down to 7.6% last 10/06/12. It reached a bottom of 7% from 10/31/12 to 11/03/12 then went back up to 7.7% last 11/29/12. Its been slowly inching up since then. Lots of hiring going on last October and November at least based on Gallups sample data. The last time Gallup had an 8.9% unempl rate was 3/15/12.</p>
<p>“Margin of error is ± 1 percentage point.”</p>
<p>There’s your answer.</p>
<p>MSFT getting rid of Ballmer finally. Time to celebrate!</p>
<p>It looks like teen retail is dead.</p>
<p>Dstark, are you okay? I haven’t seen you around lately. Hope you and your family are doing well.</p>
<p>dstark and BCEagle91 are still missing from CC. Anyone know them well enough to send them PMs or emails etc?</p>
<p>Nat Gas is about to make a short term bottom and will go up from here is past patterns follow.</p>
<p>Hard to believe that anyone could have something better to do than converse with the likes of us!</p>
<p>Things got ugly in a couple of threads and perhaps they decided they had better uses for their time.</p>
<p>I’m about 50% cash, but I have no idea whether to move in or move out. So I’ll probably do nothing. :)</p>
<p>I’m thinking I wish I was in 50% cash. I’m thinking we’re in about 17% cash (in retirement accounts). I have no idea what to do, buy more, or sell. But I know this…whatever I do will be the wrong move.</p>
<p>I’m about 23% in cash and looking to invest it if there are any big dips this month. I think we will break 1900 on the S&P by the end of the year assuming a certain idiot does not bomb a certain country and start a war in the middle east.</p>
<p>And what are the odds on that? We’re doomed. What’s another war, anyways?</p>
<p>Any reason not to sell my modest Nokia position today? Anymore upside to the MSFT buy?</p>
<p>One line of thinking is that because the stock has been heavily shorted–12% on loan–those folks will be buying en masse to cover. </p>
<p>OTOH, institutions may sell to take a profit. </p>
<p>Maybe I’ll take some money off the table and let the balance ride. Always tough to know what to do in these situations. (Trying not to be singed by my greed.)</p>
<p>I usually get out of stocks when buy deals are announced. The upside is not much more but the downside if the deal breaks can be significant. Same would be true for Nokia.</p>
<p>MSFT didn’t need to buy Nokia. It’s just one more dumb move by the most worthless CEO in business, Ballmer. I feel sorry for the CEO who takes over for him. </p>
<p>Nokia should have adopted android which just announced it has a billion users. The Nokia phone is ok but windows mobile is horrible.</p>
<p>Thought about it then sold it. Learned my lesson from previous greed. </p>
<p>There’s a point of view–particularly if you read the Finnish press–that CEO Elop, formerly of MSFT, and most definitely not a Finn, did this to return to the mother ship and position himself as Ballmer’s successor. </p>
<p>My wife is part Finn, and for them it’s like Arabia getting out of the oil business. Sad and shocked are a couple of words being tossed around, which is a lot for a nation (stereotypically?) known for its emotional constriction.</p>
<p>(How do you tell a Finnish extrovert from an introvert? The extrovert looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you.)</p>
<p>Arguably, NOK’s non handset biz–telecommunications service and equipment plus a mess of patents–will be the more valuable</p>
<p>"(How do you tell a Finnish extrovert from an introvert? The extrovert looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you.)"</p>
<p>Very funny. I’m half Finnish. My dad loves to tell stories passed down about World War 2, if they needed someone to complete a crazy suicidal mission against the Russians, they’d send in a Finn.</p>
<p>I wonder if ELOP will realize his dream of succeeding Ballmer.</p>
<p>I don’t think Elop is very bright. I hope he does not get the MSFT job. If he had gone with android a year or two ago, he would not be selling the company now. </p>
<p>So what happens to BBRY? The rumor in the past was that MSFT would buy BBRY but that is probably out of the question now.</p>
<p>Cash is now around 27%. Was a lot higher but I converted a chunk of cash into a loan. But I also hold some bonds so I am not doing too well since the market top.</p>
<p>Anyone heard from dstark?</p>