Stock Market Rises After a Confusing U.S. Employment Report

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short: The much anticipated December Employment Report was a bizarre mixed bag — weak job creation but a surprising decline in unemployment. Treasuries rallied in no uncertain terms. The yield on the 10-year note dropped nine bps to close at 2.88%. The S&P 500 was a bit more ambivalent in its reaction. The index hit its 0.27% intraday high a few seconds after the open and sold off to its -0.31% intraday low two hours later. It recovered to the flatline during the noon hour, and, after two hours of uncertainty, got a 3PM buy signal. The index closed with a 0.23% gain for the day and a 0.60% gain for the week.

Here is a 5-minute look at today with a bit of yesterday for context.

A snapshot of the 10-year yield index underscores my point about the less ambivalent mind of the government bond market.

Volume on a daily chart of the S&P 500 shows us that today’s bizarre economic news triggered no surge in activity.

The S&P 500 is now down 0.32% for 2014.

Here is a longer perspective, starting with the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.

For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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