Market comments for June 9th UPDATED

Today the Initial jobless Claims were reported. It marked the ninth straight week in which applications have been above 400,000. That trend represents a setback after applications had been declining all winter.

Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals sustainable job growth. They stayed below 400,000 for seven of nine weeks. But applications surged in April to 478,000 — an eight-month high — and they have been stuck above 400,000 since then.

The Futures are running +40 for the Dow, +4 for the S&P and +6 for the Nasdaq. Hard to believe that the market will bounce up today and that news but it looks like that is what is in store for today. As you can see from the chart below, we are due for a bounce up at some point and maybe it starts today.

European markets are up a little this morning and it looks like the Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet will signal today that policy makers intend to raise interest rates as soon as next month. As a result, the euro climbed against the yen and the dollar.

UPDATE: 7:30am PST

According to Bloomberg.com, European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet signaled the bank intends to raise interest rates next month, saying “strong vigilance” is warranted to contain inflation.

Latest data confirm “continued upward pressure on inflation,” Trichet said in Frankfurt today after the ECB kept its benchmark lending rate at 1.25 percent, as forecast by all 52 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. “Accordingly, strong vigilance is warranted.”

Pre-market outlook Jan. 15th 2009: Market Indexes will drop again today

Lots of news this morning and I will try to state major items of interest affecting your portfolio. The net effect of the news is that today will be another down day for U.S. markets. Here's the summary:

- Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan says worst is yet to come in the financial crisis
- Microsoft is seriously considering layoffs
- Motorola is looking at more cost cuts in 2009 including cutting 4,000 jobs
- The Eu Central Bank has lowered interest rates 50 basis points to a rate of 2%
- Russia has devalued its currency for the 4th time in 5 days.
- Nissan to reduce US Mfg. Plants to a 4 day work week

You can do a search on any of these items today and get the detailed news story.

I looked for some good news today but couldn't find any. The effect on the stock market futures is predictable with Dow Futures dropping over the past hour and the Nasdaq Futures were hit by the Apple news as well as the fact that Microsoft considering layoffs.

I would still hold on to the ETF Ultra Shorts SDS and TZA but by tomorrow the market may be down enough that selling some of your shares from your positions could be warranted. Currently SDS is at $81.30 in pre-market and TZA is currently at $61.49. I am still thinking these shares will rise substantially. If they don't rise enough by tomorrow I will still hold all shares. The reasoning there is that on the day of Barack Obama's Inauguration the markets may rise from the optimism of a new President and it may linger some days next week. However when reality sets in we are headed down to retest the lows and that is where you will want to sell these two ETF's.

Depending on the severity of the drop in Apple stock, symbol AAPL, I may add to my position again in the coming days.