[excerpt from NASDAQ Weekly Market Wrap: February 6, 2015 ]
The fifth full trading week of 2015 comes to a close with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ composite all lower in afternoon trading on Friday.
Most actively traded stocks include Bank of America (BAC) up 3.5%, Twitter (TWTR) higher by 15.9%, Frontier Communications (FTR) up 3%, and Sirius XM Holdings up 1.1%.The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are all significantly higher in the last five days of trading.
Crude oil futures are higher this week, trading at $51.83 per barrel on Friday afternoon.
And Gold futures are lower so far this week, trading at $1236.40 an ounce this afternoon.In economic news, in the week ending January 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 278,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 265,000 to 267,000. The 4-week moving average was 292,750, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 750 from 298,500 to 299,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending January 24, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 24 was 2,400,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 9,000 from 2,385,000 to 2,394,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,421,250, a decrease of 21,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 4,000 from 2,438,500 to 2,442,500.[snip]
[excerpt from Forbes
Markets 2/06/2015]
...Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 257,000 in January, and the
unemployment rate was little changed at 5.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in retail trade,
construction, health care, financial activities, and manufacturing.The unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, changed little in January and has shown no net change since October. The number of unemployed persons, at 9.0 million, was little changed in January.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 257,000 in January. Job gains occurred in retail trade, construction, health care, financial activities, and manufacturing. After incorporating revisions for November and December (which include the impact of the annual benchmark process), monthly job gains averaged 336,000 over the past 3 months.
[snip]
[excerpt
from
4 reasons stocks aren’t soaring after that stellar jobs report]
[snip]
....factors:
1) A rally into the jobs report: Stocks already were showing big gains
for the week before the jobs report came out.
The S&P 500 SPX, -0.34% is still up 3.4% for the week at last check.
The Dow DJIA, -0.34% is coming off a four-day winning streak that had it
up 720 points for the week as of Thursday’s close.
So Friday’s lackluster action probably won’t change a positive weekly
trend.
2) Fresh Greek worries: A downgrade of Greece by Standard & Poor’s on
Friday afternoon may have sparked a move away from riskier assets like
stocks.
S&P cut the troubled nation’s long-term rating to B-minus from B,
meaning further into junk territory.
The folks at ZeroHedge, known for spotlighting the negative, say what’s
“scariest” is that S&P itself is mentioning capital controls and bank
runs.
But other market watchers have been playing down the significance of the
latest Greek drama, and they note Friday’s downgrade is similar to an
earlier one by Moody’s Investors Service.
That said, there are mounting concerns that Greece must get tidy its
economic house or risk roiling the market.
3) Rate hikes ahead: The strong jobs report has boosted expectations
around the Fed’s rate hikes, and higher rates ought to peel some
investors away from stocks.
Investors now think the Federal Reserve will raise rates one more time
by December 2016 than they expected before Friday’s January job report,
as MarketWatch’s Gregg Robb notes....
[snip]
...4) A lagging indicator: The January jobs report reveals a lot, but it
is important to realize the labor market is often a lagging indicator.
[snip]
