Friday, October 3, 2014

Barron's: "Dow Industrials Jump 200 Points, Retake 17,000 as Jobs Data Drives Stocks Higher"

Handy rule-of-thumb: In bull markets the most dramatic moves are to the downside, in bear markets the shockingly fast moves are to the upside.
Not always true but often enough to be aware of.
DJIA: 17,010.23; S&P 500: 1968.81.

From Barron's Stocks to Watch:
For one day at least we can stop worrying about whether a slowing economy will derail the stock market, as U.S. payrolls jumped in September.

The Dow Jones Industrials have jumped 203.36 points, or 1.2%, to 17,004.41 at 12:44 p.m., while the S&P 500 has risen 1.2 % to 1,9629.18. The Nasdaq Composite has climbed 1.2% to 4,484.34 and the small-company Russell 2000 has gained 1.1% to 1,108.90.

The U.S. added 248,000 jobs in September, well above forecasts for 215,000, while the August number was revised higher to 180,000 from 142,000. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 5.9%, the lowest since 2008. Wages, however, was unchanged from the previous month. JPMorgan’s David Lebovitz can’t contain his excitement:
BOOM! Goes the jobs report…After a week full of market volatility and concerns over the state of the U.S. economy, today’s jobs report served as a reminder that the U.S. economic expansion continues…Overall, today’s report should be a positive for equities and somewhat of a mixed bag for bonds. As long as wage growth remains subdued, corporate profits should be able to continue their upward ascent, justifying slightly higher valuations in the equity market. However, if this trend of improvement in the labor market continues, it may push the Fed to raise interest rates sooner rather than later, even in the absence of higher wages....
...MORE