The ADP Numbers: Down Goes The Market

The wild ADP employment numbers are out today, and they are totally out of whack. Estimates were for increases of 125,000 to 200,000, according to the Bloomberg survey of 37 economists. It turns out that companies in the U.S. added only 38,000 workers in May, "a sign that job growth is struggling to gain momentum"

This was the smallest increase since September.

"Such gains in employment are insufficient to help the world’s largest economy accelerate after a surge in food and fuel costs earlier this year. Businesses added 207,000 jobs last month after a 268,000 gain in April and the jobless rate dipped to 8.9 percent from 9 percent, economists project a Labor Department report to show in two days".

TD Securities was quoted as saying that “The weakness reflects a general slowdown and turn in sentiment that set in with the sharp rise in energy prices, disruptions from Japan, and to a lesser extent risk aversion stemming from the Greek fiasco.”