NEW JOBLESS RATE
Posted on: Thursday, 02/05/2009

In real estate related market news today...

New jobless claims were up higher than expected today. The Labor Department reported that in the week ending January 17th over 589,000 jobless benefits claims were made, which was well above most analysts' expectations of 540,000 claims. What was a bit unnerving was this statistic: the last time jobless claims were this high was in November of 1982.

There were serious concerns for some banks today, as several regional banks came under severe pressure amid disappointing earnings. Among the harder hit was Huntington Bancshares, which plunged over 30% after announcing that it lost $440 million, replaced its CEO, and cut its dividend to a penny a share.

Fifth Third Bank also was under pressure, dropping over 30%, and said that its loss was $2.18 billion, and like Huntington also slashed its dividend to just a penny a share. SunTrust Banks announced that it lost $379 million in the quarter. The stock was down about 9%. "We are under no illusions as to the severity of this credit cycle," SunTrust CEO James Wells said.