Friends
Today’s jobs report was much better than expected. Of course it was, just when the Fed went completely dovish earlier this week. Nevertheless, today’s number was impressive. There were 304,000 new jobs created in January (which was almost twice most estimates). Once again, the unemployment rate ticked up a bit, but that is a factor of still more folks coming back into the workforce looking for jobs, which just happens to be paying a little better. Wage gains were muted for the month, but still gaining at 3.2% year over year. All in all, a fine jobs report.
Stocks rallied early, but gave back most of the gains as the trading session wore on. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 64 points to finish the day at 25,063. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to close at 2,706. Gold was down $2 to trade at $1,323 per ounce, while oil was up $1.54 to trade at $55.33 per barrel WTI.
It was a busy week for the markets. Earnings continue to be mixed as do share price reactions to the releases. As mentioned, the Fed appears to have moved to a decisively dovish stance, yet economic data, though mixed, doesn’t seem to be predicting recession any time soon. Did the stock market get it wrong in the last quarter? For the moment it appears so.
Have a great weekend everyone.
