The employment numbers were better than expected, the first economic news of late that has happily surprised. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.1%. I wouldn’t get overly excited. These numbers jump around a good bit and the rate can drop on people giving up looking for a job.
The market sold the bounce, taking stocks into negative territory and that is likely due to selling by skeptics and those who have received margin calls on the sharp drop yesterday.
I expect that we might close higher today and might still do OK Monday, especially if we get any kind of favorable announcement from European leaders over the weekend.
Is this end of the correction with the market down 12%? Maybe, but if we rally a few percent don’t be surprised if that gets sold off. I would be more inclined to buy after that drop, especially if it got the market down to below 12,000 on the DJIA. That is the kind of ending pattern to bad markets that we have seen the last few years.
European markets closed mixed to slightly up. Asia was down sharply as a follow through to yesterday. Gold is up today, treasury bonds are lower in price, the dollar is fairly flat. Other commodities are mixed.