Stocks Rise After New Jobs Report

AP:

Stocks rose moderately Thursday after a report of an increase in new jobs during December eased some concerns about the economy a day before the Labor Department's key reading on employment.

Investors who sent stocks skidding Wednesday on economic concerns took some solace from the findings of payroll company Automatic Data Processing that showed the economy added 40,000 private sector jobs last month, above the 30,000 forecast of economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

In addition, the number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, the Labor Department said. The report was upbeat, but investors were also mindful that these weekly readings can be volatile, and the latest reflected unusual factors related to the Christmas holiday.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[Dendroica]

Money.cnn.com has the S&P at the close, at 1447.16, unchanged for the day.

All that trading, and no change!

[mmckinl]

There is a lot of money out there now, and people are watching their money lose value every day.

Bond rates should be going up due to inflation worries, but we see that safety trumps depreciation, a very bad sign.

What we have is too much money chasing too few assets ... a sign that the wealthy have too much money for the good of the economy.

[geobushono]

EVERYBODY is wrong except the gov't figures?
you're sure about this huh?
well hell i think i'll run out and buy a new
$55,000 pickup.

[mrcontinental]

The market went up because allowing it to fall below 13,000 would have been a crushing psychological blow to a economy already taking a standing eight count.

[BobHanssen]

What 20-somethings write this drivel? The facts are this: Each month the U.S. population increases by about 150,000 and about the same number enter the job market. The Clinton administration averaged 221,000 new jobs a month. The Bush administration's average is 57,000. There are currently 2.8 million continuing claims for unemployment, the highest in two plus years. There was a decrease in manufacturing jobs and an increase in service (read WalMart) jobs. I could go on with these numbers, but bottom line, the trend is not good.

[curiousasheck]

Translation. The Military signed 40,000 new recruits.

[godlessclif]

"Monsanto Co. rose $7.94, or 7.1 percent, to $119.41 after saying its first-quarter profit nearly tripled amid a strong performance by its Latin American business. The seed company raised its earnings forecast for the year."

This is the future. The old DeKalb Seed company is now the genetic engineering branch of Monsanto and is profiting by selling farmers seeds enginer=ered to not breed true so they must keep coming back like drug addicts.

This is not the kind of seed we need to genetically engineers. The whole idea is satanic.

[Dendroica]

What a bullshit reason.

That jobs report is based on a HOLIDAY WEEK. With fewer days for the unemployment offices open, they have more crowds, and fewer people go. And historically, there are fewer people fired.

The market went down a bit too hard yesterday on the data, and it's recovering from that. International volatility and political news matters a lot more than the weekly unemployment numbers, which essentially nobody really watches.

But look out for tomorrow's monthlies, that might be a different kettle of fish.