STOCK MARKET BRACESFOR GRIM JOBS REPORT

INVESTORS MOVE TOWARD CASH
BLOOMBERG: The yen and the dollar strengthened as stocks around the world declined before a report likely to show the U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high, spurring demand for the currencies as a refuge . . . U.S. employers cut 365,000 jobs last month after reducing them by 345,000 in May, according to a Bloomberg News survey . . . READ MORE

LABOR DEPT. REPORT TODAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Labor Department is scheduled to release a report Thursday expected to show the nation's unemployment rate edging closer to double digits. Wall Street economists predict the June jobless rate to be 9.6 percent . . . as recession-weary companies continue to cut workers . . . Companies are expected to keep shedding jobs through the rest of this year . . . READ MORE

10 YEARS OF GAINS WIPED OUT?
FORBES: If, as expected, 363,000 jobs were eliminated last month, it will mean 131.8 million people are working in the U.S. -- the same as May of 2000. If another million jobs disappear by the end of the year -- likely, without unexpected improvement -- an entire decade of employment gains will have been wiped out . . . Economists' worst assumptions about employment are being surpassed monthly . . . READ MORE

EURO UNEMPLOYMENT HITS 9.5%
WALL STREET JOURNAL: The unemployment rate in the 16 countries that use the euro rose more than expected and to the highest level for a decade in May . . . The euro-zone jobless rate rose to 9.5% . . . READ MORE

CHINESE OFFICIAL SLAMS
WAXMAN-MARKEY TARIFF
ASSOCIATED PRESS: China said Thursday it opposed the Waxman-Market legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying tariffs should not be imposed on countries that do not cut emissions. "We are firmly against such attempts . . . It is not conducive to world economic recovery and it serves nobody's interest," Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said in Beijing . . . READ MORE

THE BUSINESS INSIDER
HOW OBAMA BLEW IT
Six months into the Obama presidency and the New York Times is already running an autopsy analyzing how he could have been so wrong about the economy . . . We suspect Obama, Summers, Geithner & Co. just decided that they had to issue rose-colored projections about the unemployment rate and recovery or they would never have a hope in hell of ramming such huge spending increases through. And if the forecasts proved optimistic? Well, by then, maybe everyone would have forgotten. They haven't . . . READ MORE

RUSSIA SAYS NUCLEAR TALKS WITH US GOING WELL: REPORT

Talks on a new US-Russian nuclear disarmament treaty are going better than initially expected, a top Russian diplomat told the RIA-Novosti news agency on Wednesday.
"The degree of progress is beyond the expectations that existed when we started," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying.
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