Today in the market, Friday, November 07, 2008: Stocks rose on Friday as bargain hunters scooped up shares at multiyear lows after a big drop in the October payrolls was less dire than feared. Dow up 2.9 pct, S&P up 2.9, Nasdaq up 2.4 percent.
For the week, though, the indexes closed lower after an extremely volatile run since Monday’s opening bell. The first week of November was capped not only by the biggest Election Day rally ever, but followed by a huge reversal the next day. The week included the biggest two-day dive since October 1987.
“Essentially, the markets moved higher today because much of the bad news in today’s employment report was already incorporated into the minds of investors,” said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.
Goldman Sachs analysts had expected up to 300,000 jobs may have been cut from non-farm payrolls in October. So when the Labor Department reported 240,000 jobs lost last month, that did not send the stock market into a tailspin even though the figure exceeded the median forecast of 200,000. (headline & commentary courtesy of Reuters)
ETF/CEF Discussion: Even with the strong market showing today, RSI failed to make a selection in its vast ETF/CEF database. Small wonder, with this week’s performance of high volatility and down bias. Just stay away until the selling pressure subsides. Have a good weekend.
