What does it mean?

The US unemployment rate for February 2010 is finally out last night: 9.7%, the same as last month. Here is the chart from 1997:

If the rate keeps stable, it doesn't give much signal whether the economy is recovering or getting worse. In fact, for such unemployment rate during winter time, it is possitive as the rate could have been more optimistic if it is in spring or summer. To me, I still cannot make a conclusion as we are having a slow business period throughout the world in March.

My strategy:

Buy Astro for mid term investment. I haven't bought yet as the price is still not attractive enough.
Buy Public Bank for long term investment. I haven't bought yet as my fund is too small for long term investment.
Buy Pelikan for mid term investment. I bought 5 lots using my MBB account @RM1.21. I will post the slip soon. I would expect good earnings from this aggressive yet defensive stock in the quaters to come. My target sell price is around RM1.50.

For short term investors, they are plenty of choices. Xinquan can be a good candidate as there will be another new China shoe IPO coming and also the dividend is going to Ex soon. Other counters include XDL, ETI TECH, etc., can be a good choice for short term investment as these counters are selling at a significant discount. (ETI TECH is being sold down by Dubai investors and syndicate recently; XDL being sold down by faulty Bursa earnings report and the mistake has been corrected and addressed in Bursa website. The EPS was earlier reported 100 times less! It's 1000% undervalue.)