Friends
I like it. From all accounts, we went up today because of “good” news. Now, was the news really that good? Well no. The government non-farm payroll number showed we created 163,000 new jobs in July, which was better than the 100,000 number the street was expecting. Hey, better than expected is the new “good” these days, even if those expectations are painfully low. Now, of course, the unemployment rate did tick up a little from 8.2% to 8.3%, but don’t try to bring me down, man. At least, stocks didn’t rise because the news was so bad that it guaranteed more QE (punch for the punchbowl). Actually, today’s number along with a decent ISM non-manufacturing (service sector) index number, probably means that the Fed is on hold for a few weeks.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 217 points to finish the day at 13,096. The S&P 500 was up 25 points to close at 1390. Gold was up $15 to trade at $1606 per ounce, while oil spiked $4.12 to trade at $91.25 per barrel WTI. It was nice to see the Dow finish the week above 13,000. Maybe we can get the S&P to get back above the 1400 level, which might just get the bears to throw in the towel (there was a lot of towel throwing today by the shorts).
It was quite a week of news. To recap, both the ECB and the Fed are ready to do more if necessary, economic numbers have been mixed but here in the U.S. it looks like we are still growing, and corporations are still squeezing profits out of declining sales. All in all, stocks regained all of the losses they had sustained during the week to end in positive territory, which comes as a surprise to many. Let’s see what next week has in store for us. Can’t wait.
Have a great weekend everyone.
