As the presidential race tightens, with Hillary Clinton losing last week’s 12 percentage point lead over Donald Trump, markets are going jabberwocky.

Gold prices are up more than 2% hitting $1,300 an ounce while stocks look at the first 5-day slide since 2013.

However, the private jobs report on Wednesday morning confirms for me what I have been saying.

There are no meaningful jobs being offered to anyone who does not live near the coasts.

ADP reported that private sector jobs missed projections by almost 15%. And digging further into the report shows that more service jobs were created, while manufacturing and higher paying jobs were cut.

These type of reports point to the great struggle most Americans are experiencing since the Gret Recession.

The American consumer has now dismissed their “wants” and is struggling to take care of their “needs”.

The “aspirational”  shopper now wants just to be able to get to the next check and still put food on the table. You hear the term “shopping the rim” more often now, meaning just getting the essentials, milk, eggs and meat found on the outside rim of supermarkets.

It would not surprise me at all if by next March the eggheads at the Bureau of Economic Analysis declare that the US went into recession in the third quarter of 2016.

It’s just that you can’t say that with rigged numbers for GDP that are being proffered for the election. That’s why there are revisions.