Yesterday when the weekly unemployment claims were announced at nearly three year lows, the bellwether market indexes embraced the data by surging nearly 2%. Fast forward to this morning, the February jobs report was also very strong with the unemployment rate falling to 8.9%. This is the first reading below 9% since April 2009. In addition, the private sector added 192,000 jobs which was above market expectations of 185,000.

Okay so we continued to rally today, right? Not so fast thanks to 0il spiking to $104+ per barrel and the ever increasing prices at the gas pump. These two key economic factors weighed in on equities today with the Dow falling 88 points chart, the S&P 500 giving up almost 10 points chart and the Nasdaq retreating 14 points chart. These indexes did however come off their session lows.

I am still very impressed with how buoyant most equities have been considering the ongoing crises in the middle east. It is also encouraging to see stronger economic data coming out and hopefully this trend continues.

Have a wonderful weekend 🙂

~George