Friday, May 2, 2014

Economic Journal - Friday, 5/2/2014

(as of 7:20 AM PST)

A blockbuster employment report should have stocks screaming to the upside, but it is a very quiet market to start the day.  The economy generated 288,000 new jobs, the highest level of job growth in two years.  Revisions upward of prior months added even more positive news for investors to ponder.  Perhaps the fact that the unemployment rate fell below a prior target that had been set by the Federal Reserve was the reason.  Unemployment dropped from 6.6% to 6.3%, below what was once considered the ‘magic number’ for increasing interest rates.  Maybe increased selling pressure from the ‘sell in May and go away’ crowd is the reason.   Or perhaps we have simply come up too far, too fast and we need a breather.  It is of course a combination of factors, but by the end of the day strong economic data should prevail and provide a nice lift to market indexes.  Gold continues to drag but holding level, while oil is unchanged.  Interest rates are on the rise on the positive economic news.

 

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