Markets Surges on January Jobs Report

The market was thrilled with the news from the Labor Department on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 243,000 in the month of January. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% which is a three-year low. The private sector led the way, adding 257,000 jobs.

This was very good news even though the overall picture remains grim. In the last two years, 3.1 million jobs have been created. The problem is that in the two years prior to that, 8.7 million jobs were lost. At the current rate of job creation, we’ll still need a few more years to get back to normal.

Stock prices, however, responded very positively. The Dow jumped to its highest level since 2008. The Nasdaq Composite hit an 11-year high. Our Buy List had an exceptionally strong day on Friday. While the S&P 500 gained an impressive 1.46%, our Buy List was up by 2.01%. By the close, we were up just 10.01% for the year compared with 6.94% for the S&P 500.

Thanks to its strong earnings report, Fiserv ($FISV) jumped by 4.39% to $65.88. Ford ($F) added 4.32%. AFLAC ($AFL) briefly broke through $50 per share. Nicholas Financial ($NICK) rose by 3.81% to close at $13.90. Hudson City ($HCBK) also climbed by more than 4%.

Posted by on February 6th, 2012 at 10:51 am


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