Labor/Economy

A Fed report shows a jump in U.S. household wealth during the first quarter of 2011; Treasury looks to punish three big banks for substandard performance in participating in HAMP; and the Fed is now the top U.S. creditor.

The Federal Reserve releases its latest Beige Book on the ups and downs of the U.S. economy; oil prices spike after a disorganized meeting of OPEC; and rating agencies encourage Congress to take default seriously.

With the recovery still fragile, Fed Chairman Bernanke says that drastic federal budget cuts could have damaging effects; job openings have been flat; and consumer borrowing saw an uptick in April.

In more unsettling employment news, the Conference Board said on Monday that its Employment Trends Index declined for the second month in a row in May to 99.7, down from April’s revised figure of 100.1. On the other hand, the May figure is still up 5.3 percent from a year ago.

Anemic hiring in May meant, essentially, that it was more of the same for the economy during the month. That is, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a lot of labor indicators were “essentially unchanged”–unchanged from crummy, unfortunately.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday, the U.S. economy added 54,000 jobs during May, which was a weak showing indeed, and too close for comfort to the crummy numbers published by ADP earlier in the week. The question now is whether the May numbers are a big bump in the road to recovery–and that road certainly is bumpy–or the start of a more sinister trend.

The equity markets were all atwitter–that is, stock-index futures plunged–after ADP Employer Services reported on Wednesday morning that U.S. employers added only 38,000 jobs in May, compared with a revised ADP figure of 177,000 in April, which is the smallest increase reported by the payroll specialist since last September. The May figure was drastically less than anticipated.