The Reports come in Varied with Some Good and Some Bad

Another week has passed, and there is plenty of news in the financial world that bears reporting. For some nations this was a particularly good week, like Australia, while others are a more mixed bag. The general glance at the United States will say that it was definitely a bad week, which is somewhat of a shame since there was some very good news that was buried by the unemployment reports. Still, when your unemployment rate goes over 10% for the first time since the severe recession in the early 1980’s, that is pretty hard to ignore.

The unemployment report is going to be the biggest story everyone focuses on in the United States. Unemployment hit 10.2%, the first time unemployment in the States has been in double digits since 1983. Those reports affecting oil prices, as oil fell below $78 a barrel on those numbers.

Lost in this pessimistic news were two little nuggets of encouragement. One was that AIG posted its second consecutive quarterly profit, a good sign for a bank that needed a major government bailout earlier this year. The other pleasant surprise was Ford, which stunned all expectations by posting a $1 billion profit for the third quarter. Ford was also the only American company to avoid bankruptcy and bailout funds. The CEOs over there are doing one heck of a job turning things around, and predict a fully and while debt reduction may eat into profits in 2010, they’re already predicting a very good year in 2011.

In other parts of the world the reports come in varied with some good and some bad, but a mixed bag is still far better than a worldwide free fall like we experienced just over a year ago. There is still a lot to cover, so without any further wait, here is this week’s installment of the week in review.

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