A much stronger than expected employment report released on Friday helped fend off a market sell-off that occurred during most of the week. The private sector added 244,000 jobs in April well above the 185,000 that the street was expecting. This is one of the biggest corporate hiring binges in years which supports the notion that the overall economy is indeed improving. Stocks did advance in light of the employment report, however for the week the Dow (chart) fell 171 points, the S&P 500 (chart) was down 1.7% and the Nasdaq (chart) gave back almost 46 points.

In a bull market I think it is very healthy and even necessary for equities and indexes to pullback and consolidate before resuming its trend. However, when you have such a hot market especially in the commodities space and even more specifically the unbelievable run in silver, sell-offs tend to be more dramatic and unnerving. Now that volatility is increasing, this should serve as a reminder to not let the emotion of fear or greed get in the way of investment objectives.

As Q1 earnings reporting season winds down, more attention will be placed on the economy and the jobs market and it will be very interesting to see how the markets will set up for the end of the Fed’s quantitative easing program which expires at the end of June.

Have a great weekend 🙂

~George