Home sales improve…  Are we there yet…  Intervention talks…  Buying on dips… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Red ink flows…  Japan suggests diversification for their reserves…  Commodity currencies rebound…  Data galore for the rest of the week… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Risk Assets soar!  German Investor Confidence surprises!  High yielders kicking tail…  Who’s afraid of the SNB? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

A little over a week ago the title to one of my articles was “Employment Numbers Are About To Get Historically Bad”. The article was looking ahead to last Friday’s employment report, which had it followed expectations would have shown another 600,000 jobs lost in April.

This could get ugly. Another month, another 600k+ jobs expected to be lost. This would mark the 16th straight month of job losses, just one month short of the longest streak in history.

We are in the midst of the worst economy in decades. Corporate earnings are falling. Unemployment is rising. And there looks to be no relief in sight. While the stock market is due for a bounce (probably a big one), there is no doubt that the general trend is still down.

“Alcoa to cut 13,500 jobs”…another recession headline confirms unemployment will continue to get worse for a while yet. Outright cuts make the big news. But some companies hitting rough times have taken a gentler approach. Their workers have kept their jobs…

But their paychecks are shrinking.

More and more Americans have become involuntary part timers. Some of these half-fortunate workers looked for full time work, but were only able to find part-time employment. Most of them are still in the same job but working less. Goodbye to the rich time-and-a-half overtime work. These involuntary part-timers are even losing straight-time hours.

An involuntary part-timer, also known as an “underemployed” person in the statistics, is someone who wanted a full-time job but works 35 or…

The deep recession expected in 2009 will likely lead to higher rates of crime. Adam Lass says investors can play this trend by picking up shares of commercial jails. Florida-based Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) operates in several countries and is rapidly expanding its detention facilities. Adam says investors could be in line to double their money by the summer.

There are some spooky similarities between today and December 1974, says Rick Pendergraft. At that time, oversold stocks began a major six-month rally. That’s why, contrary to popular belief, stocks might just be the best place to be for the first half of 2009. But if history does repeat itself, Rick says investors should expect more trouble in stocks in the second half of the year.

Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE:WHR) announced it would cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009. America’s largest home appliance maker also lowered its earnings outlook after a 7% fall in Q3. This from Associated Press:

Whirlpool said the drop in profit reflects significantly higher material and oil-related costs and lower industry demand. U.S. industry unit shipments of major appliances declined 11 percent in the quarter.

Whirlpool said it now expects a profit of $5.75 to $6 per share for 2008, compared with its previous estimate of $7 to $7.50 per share.

Based upon its revised earnings expectations and the glum industry outlook, the company said it now expects to generate free cash flow of $50 million or less for the full year, well down from…