Jack Ablin Quotes on Media & News (3 Quotes)

Any bad news can throw us, and the jobs report was perceived as bad news, seen as a sign that the recovery is fragile, but that's not necessarily true. In the last two recessions, a pickup in employment only happened a year after the recession had ended. So just because unemployment is higher doesn't mean we're not on track for a recovery.

The housing news was the big setback today. While we suspect that housing is likely to slow and thereby take the primary catalyst away from consumer spending, the number came in worse than expected and forced investors to face reality much sooner.

We have some very ugly numbers. You can argue that the ISM is still backward looking, and maybe even the jobless claims, but eventually we're going to need some evidence that the economy is improving. We had a lot of enthusiasm coming from earnings, but the news today is a little bit of a slap in the face that we're not out of the woods yet.