PHILADELPHIA—Nationally syndicated host and biblical investing authority Dan Celia says job openings have surpassed the all-time record high reached last month.
“Well, the Dow was in negative territory, but everything else was in positive territory. Oil closed at $70 a barrel on Tuesday, which is not good. We also received some poor economic data. One that we should be jumping for joy at is the over 9 million job openings. Remember, last month we hit 8.2. It was a record high in the history of the nation. We just added a million more job openings. And guess what? The NFIB index of confidence from small businesses, the largest employer in the country, dropped into pessimistic territory for the month of May.
“Wait a minute. There’s over 9 million job openings. The economy must be flourishing. No, the economy is still trying to get back to where it was pre-pandemic. The problem is nobody’s coming back to work. You’ve got to believe these small business owners are concerned about being able to hire somebody to do the kitchen work, to wait tables, to clean the cars, to flip the hamburgers, to keep the economy working, to build houses and to mill lumber. Small businesses are concerned about the lack of workers.
“The indices are relatively flat. They’re watching all this play out. They understand that Jerome Powell is likely to stop some of the quantitative easing, the buying of mortgage-backed securities. We don’t know how much—probably to the tune of $15 or $20 billion a month. It’s not going to have any impact, but everybody’s concerned about it. Now, Janet Yellen is saying, ‘Hey, he needs to raise rates. Now’s the time to do it.’ She may be right about that. It wouldn’t be a bad time to raise it just a little; 12.5 basis points would be fine. Just begin to strengthen our currency.”
Celia discusses these and other global and economic headlines on his daily, three-hour “Financial Issues” program, heard on more than 660 radio stations and several television networks nationwide, including FISM.TV, viewed on several post-cable television platforms and online.
Read more about Celia, FISM and “Financial Issues” or visit the FISM website, its Facebook page, on YouTube at Financial Issues with Dan Celia or on Twitter @financialissues; download the FISM app here.
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