Friends
Market participants couldn’t decide whether today’s jobs data was good news or bad news. Indeed, the 280,000 new jobs created in May was better than expected, and the unemployment rate is holding near 5.5%, not to mention continuing progress in wages as they continue to inch up. Nevertheless, traders didn’t know exactly what to do with this information. Bonds sold off hard then recovered some. Stocks went down, recovered to show nice gains, then dropped again.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 56 points to finish the day at 17,849. The S&P 500 was down 3 points to close at 2092. Gold was down $4.70 to trade at $1170 per ounce, while oil was up $.96 to trade at $58.96 per barrel WTI.
I mentioned yesterday that the market is jittery at the moment, and today illustrated that perfectly. Market participants couldn’t decide if good news is now bad news or not. Will today’s numbers give the Fed more of a reason to move on rates, or is there still enough global weakness (remember the IMF’s plea/suggestion that the Fed hold off until next year), not to mention softness in the U.S. economy to keep the Fed on hold. Plenty to chew on as we near the June Fed meeting (the FOMC meets on the 16th and 17th). The fascinating thing is that worrying over whether the Fed moves in June, September or even next year, really is so shortsighted. In the long term scheme of things it really makes no difference.
Have a great weekend everyone.
