The Market Extends Its Gains

Wall Street already has its eyes fixed on Friday’s jobs report. The expectation is for an increase of 170,000 nonfarm jobs and for 180,000 jobs in the private sector. We got a sneak preview this morning when ADP, the private payroll firm, said that 198,000 jobs were added last month. The Street had been expecting ADP to report 175,000 jobs. As we know, the Fed has based its exit from 0% on the employment reports. We still have a long way to go.

The good news this morning is helping the stock market extend its gain from yesterday’s record-beating day. The Dow is far from my favorite index; it’s price-weighted and only contains 30 stocks. That’s why I almost always refer to the S&P 500. Still, I understand the psychological impact of the oldest and best-known index finally breaking a new high.

For its part, the S&P 500 has been as high as 1,544.71 this morning so it’s not that far from the all-time high close from October 9, 2007 of 1,565.15. Several of our stocks like Fiserv, JPMorgan, Stryker and Cognizant Technologies are at or near 52-week highs this morning. JPM finally broke though $50 per share. I think the bank will increase its dividend by five cents per share very soon.

fredgraph03062013

Posted by on March 6th, 2013 at 9:58 am


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