Money Watch Weekly Wrap

What a week! After the bin Laden news broke, investors turned to the more mundane fears of a global slowdown and witnessed a melt-down in commodities prices. The combination pushed down US indexes from three-year highs, despite a better-than-expected jobs report. (For more on the April Employment report, go here.)

• DJIA: 12,638, down 1.3% on week, up 9.2% YTD
• S&P 500: 1340, down 1.7% on week, up 6.5% YTD
• NASDAQ: 2827, down 1.6% on week, up 6.6% YTD
• June Crude Oil: $97.18, down 14.7% on week (Biggest weekly dollar decline since tracking began in 1983, Biggest weekly percentage decline since the week ended December 19, 2008)
• June Gold: $1491.60, down 4.1% on week
• July Silver: $35.29, down 27.4% on week (The percentage loss would equate to a 3464-point drop in the Dow!) Silver is still up 14% this year
• AAA Nat'l Avg for Gallon of Regular Gas: $3.97 (Record was $4.11 in July, 2008)

FACTOIDS OF THE WEEK: Employment Edition

• April Jobs: +244,000 (best month in the past 11)
• April Rate: 9% (up from 8.8 percent in March)
• April private sector Jobs: +268,000 (strongest month since February 2006)
• March and February Revisions: +46,000
• Total Jobs created since March, 2010: 1.8 million (+2.1 million in private sector)
• Unemployment Rate: 9.0 percent, from 8.8 percent in March
• Unemployed persons: 13.7 million, from 13.5 million
• Long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks and over): 5.8, from 6.1 million in March. Represents 43.3 percent of the total unemployed
• Typical length of unemployment: 38.3 weeks
• Unemployment rate > age 65: 6.5%
• Unemployment rate > age 16-19: 24.9%
• Part-timers (hours cut for economic reasons): 8.6 million
• Unemployed Americans NOT receiving benefits: 5.5 million

Mon 5/9:
Third meeting of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

Tues 5/10:
Disney 7:30 Small Business Optimism Index

8:30 Import/Export Prices

Weds 5/11:
8:30 International Trade

Thurs 5/12:
Kohl's, Nordstrom
8:30 Weekly Claims

8:30 Retail Sales

8:30 PPI

Fri 5/13:
8:30 CPI

9:55 Consumer Sentiment

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated business analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and chief investment officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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