According to Briefing.com's Market Update: "It's been nothing but green for the stock market as the September employment report delivered something the economic bulls have been anticipating for some time now -- payroll growth." And, indeed, employment was up by 57,000 in September, though the overall unemployment rate remained pegged at 6.1 percent. Remember that last month job growth went the other way by a very unexpected 93,000 and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the market made much of the fact this was a blip, that unemployment was "essentially unchanged." So, today the Dow is up almost 150 points at 1 PM Eastern, indicating that traders are seizing on this as good news amidst a sea of mixed economic figures. (Unfortunately, the BLS does not provide static URLs for its monthly reports, but just swaps them out, so it is harder to get an objective view of events.)
All the signs that the market has no particular directions, from recent volatility to the tendency to grasp at any good news, gives me great pause -- remember what happens to Mr. Market in so many Octobers.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at October 3, 2003 09:54 AM | TrackBack