Another lousy day for the markets

It's not just the Dow, which dropped another 160 points. European markets fell big time (more concerns about debt and the economy), crude oil settled at $87.82 a barrel, the lowest level this year (though California gas prices haven't moved much in recent days), and the yields on 10-year Treasury notes are down to 1.627 percent - the lowest level since they started keeping records in 1977. Seems like investors are opting for the security of U.S. government bonds, despite those tiny returns. The next possible inflection will be Friday's employment numbers for May. A Reuters survey of economists points to a job gain of 150,000, which would be a modest pickup from April's disappointing results. But need I remind everybody that these forecasts have been notoriously off? From Reuters:

"There were weather and timing effects that hit the April number, but things are coming back to normal," said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. "Right now the underlying job growth in the U.S. is somewhere between 175,000 and 200,000 per month. That is an economy that is doing good, but not great."