Market rallies on rose-coloured, half-glassed optimisim

Here's some data points on the day:

> The Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, the highest level since 1997, from 12.5 percent in 2007. It said this was the first statistically significant increase in the annual poverty rate since 2004.

> The number of Americans without health insurance climbed by 800,000 to 46.3 million, or 15.4% of the population.

> Real median household income fell 3.6 percent to $50,303 in 2008. "This breaks a string of three years of annual income increases and coincides with the recession that started in December 2007,"

> The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending September 5 fell by 26,000 to 550,000, the tenth consecutive week below 600,000.

> The U.S. had a record low 2.4 million job openings in July, the Labor Department said Wednesday, the fewest since the department started tracking the figure in 2000, and half the peak of 4.8 million in mid-2007.

> Employment may be starting to stabilize after 20 straight months of job losses, economists said. A return to job growth, meanwhile, is likely months away

After a brief early dip, the DJIA is at this moment up 20, S&P up 4 and the Nasdaq up 10. Happy days are here again.


US poverty rate rises to 11-year high

Household income falls 3.6% in 2008

Jobless Claims Fall to 550,000; Cont. Claims at 6.1 Mln

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fell to 550,000 Last Week

Job Openings Fell to Record Low in July