The jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 9.5% last month – and many economists are betting for the jobless rate to hit 10%.

What’s good for Goldman is bad for the nation.

I want to expand on my colleague Martin Denholm’s excellent piece yesterday about the spin on Caterpillar’s(NYSE: CAT) earnings.  As Martin mentioned, don’t take a company’s quarterly results at face value. Earnings and guidance are very conservative this year, so it shouldn’t come as a shock when a company beats its projections.

iPhones Carry Apple Past Wall Street Estimates; Coca-Cola Beats Estimates of Overseas Sales; CIT May Still Face Bankruptcy; TARP Czar Calls for Transparency; Caterpillar Stock Jumps on Brighter Outlook; BlackRock Beats Estimates, State Street Falls Short; Merck Considering Partner For Schering-Plough Consumer Health Operations; Yahoo Sales Down, Profit Up

Beware of dodgy headlines. Beware of soft estimates.  As earnings season forges onward, nervous investors are latching onto any morsel of good news they can find – even if it’s artificial.

China imported record amounts of copper and iron ore in April as its mammoth stimulus program stoked its foundries and mills.  But the nation’s exports remained weak, leaving some to wonder how much longer the country can keep its economic fires lit without an increase in global consumption.

Only one of the 19 financial institutions that received a bank stress test would require additional capital, the controversial government initiative has reportedly concluded.

Bellwethers Report Disappointing Earnings; Morgan Stanley on the Hunt for Regional Banks; NYT Reports Loss; Pentagon Computers Hacked; FDIC Ready to Replace Pandit; TARP Faces Fraud; Financial Institutions Lost $4.1 trillion; India Cuts Rates

While many analysts expect U.S. corporate earnings and overall economic data to remain weak by historical standards, there may well be enough of an improvement over the prior months and quarters to spark some optimism that there are better times ahead.

Caterpillar Offers 2,000 Early Retirements; Canada Posts Rare Trade Deficit; RIM Meets 4Q Expectations, Barely; GE Powering Middle East; Dollar Rises Against Yen, Euro; GM Seeks Saab Funding From Sweden; Gold Hits 7-month High; China Injects $19.5 Billion Into Rio Tinto