Friends
So much for that whisper number. The government jobs data was released this morning as there were 162,000 new jobs created last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.4%. The jobs number was a bit shy of what traders were expecting, but not so bad as to cause a lot of consternation. Indeed, traders seemed somewhat undecided today, once again trying to determine whether the employment data was good enough or not. Will it change anything that Fed officials were thinking earlier in the week?
As for the markets, bonds had sold off before the release but rallied afterwards, the thinking that tapering may not start as soon as expected. Stocks drifted aimlessly for most of the day but by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 30 points to close at 15,658. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to finish the day at 1709. Gold, after selling off strongly before the report, finished the day down only $3 to trade at $1307 per ounce, while oil was down $1.10 to trade at $106.79 per barrel WTI. It was interesting to see the S&P hold 1700 as a support level today. Remember in the world of technical analysis, resistance becomes support and vice versa.
Most analysts were complaining about the quality of jobs being created this year. So far about 222,000 full-time jobs have been created while about 731,000 part-time jobs have been created. Of course there are reasons for this, one possibly being the coming implementation of Obama care. Anyway, the jobs report was met with a tepid reaction and now we’re left to try to determine what is next for the Fed. We are through the bulk of earnings season, and it went ok, so now we’ll see if this summer rally can continue, or are we do to take a breather? We’ll keep an eye on it all for you.
Have a great weekend everyone.
