MORNING BRIEFS

Weekly Jobs Claims were down 26,000 to 550,000
Need to see it drop to 400,000 to start feeling like things are getting better.
Monsanto Seed Company announced this morning that they will be laying off workers so obviously we are nowhere out of the woods. The futures are taking this all in stride and are up slightly this morning. My guess is that unless something wonderful happens, the market will cough back any gains and we will have a small sell off. 550,000 claims is more than had been expected.

U.S. foreclosure filings near record high
Home foreclosure filings in August came within 1 percentage point of July's record high and are projected to increase until late next year, data provider RealtyTrac said. Foreclosures in the legal pipeline that lead to repossession are "probably going to overwhelm" the financial system in modifying loans, said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's senior vice president. Last month, a foreclosure filing was made for one in every 357 homes in the U.S. Reuters (10 Sep.)

Fed's Beige Book shows slow economic recovery
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book survey of the U.S. economy shows that economic recovery is slow and fragile. The biggest indications of improvement are seen in residential real estate sales, increasing consumer prices and rising manufacturing orders. But retail sales and commercial real estate values remain weak. The New York Times (09 Sep.)

Senate bill gives Fed less authority than previous proposals
The U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee is drafting legislation for overhauling the financial regulatory framework, but the bill is shaping up to be significantly different from what the White House had proposed, sources said. For example, the Senate proposal would not give the Federal Reserve as much authority as the administration had proposed. Both Republican and Democratic senators have voiced concerns about the Fed and its role in the financial crisis. The Washington Post (10 Sep.)

FDIC prepares to wind down debt-guarantee program for banks
The U.S. banking industry is about to face a test of how well it will fare without the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s debt-guarantee program. The FDIC said it is weighing whether to continue the program for an additional six months or allow it to expire as planned Oct. 31. "As domestic credit and liquidity markets appear to be normalizing and the number of entities utilizing the debt-guarantee program has decreased, now is an important time to make clear our intent to end the program," said FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair. The Wall Street Journal (10 Sep.)