US economy improving

The United States economy is beginning 2012 on a brighter note in a sign investors may be too pessimistic.

The number of people in jobs rose 200,000 in December, double the gain in November, a Labor Department report showed on Friday. A weekly measure of consumer confidence ended 2011 at a five-month high. Manufacturers reported their business in December grew at the fastest pace in six months. The combination indicates the world's largest economy has enough staying power to withstand a recession in Europe.

John Herrmann, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston, said that "markets are absolutely preoccupied about the risks from Europe and the US housing market."

Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock Inc, the world's biggest asset manager, sees US stock prices rising and yields on Treasury securities climbing this year as investor concerns about the outlook abate.

Doll forecasts that US stocks will return at least 10 percent in 2012, beating foreign markets for a third year, as the nation's GDP expands by as much as 2.5 percent. GDP grew 1.8 percent last year, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News last month.

The December payrolls report capped four months of declines in the unemployment rate andsix consecutive months of jobs gains of at least 100,000, indicating the labor market is gaining momentum heading into a presidential election campaign season that will be shaped largely by the state of the economy.

President Barack Obama said that the country was starting to rebound and appealed to lawmakers to extend a payroll-tax cut through the rest of the year to ensure growth continues.

In the latest Gallup tracking poll conducted between Jan 3 and 5, 36 percent of Americans said the economy is getting better versus 59 who said it is worsening. As recently as Dec 1 to 3, 27 percent saw the economy improving against 69 percent seeing it worsening.

Obama's job approval also has been rising in recent months. The Gallup tracking poll showed Obama with a job approval rating of 45 percent between Jan 3 and 5 against monthly averages of 43 percent in December and November and a monthly average of 41 percent in each of the prior three months. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Stocks and Treasury yields fell on Friday after William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the outlook for unemployment remains "unacceptably high"even though the jobless rate dropped to 8.5 percent, an almost three-year low.

Investors last year favored bonds over stocks, as they sought refuge from the financial turmoil in Europe. US Treasury securities returned 9.8 percent in 2011, their best annual performance since a 14 percent gain in 2008, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. Investors bought the US securities as a haven, with Europe's debt crisis threatening to infect the region's larger economies.

Questions:

1. How much did the number of people with jobs rise by in December?

2. How much did the GDP grow last year?

3. How much did US Treasury securities return in 2011?

Answers:

1. 200,000

2. 1.8 percent

3. 9.8 percent