Friends

This morning’s non-farm payroll number came in at 151,000 new jobs having been created in February. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%. For the most part the jobs data came in about as expected. Stocks tried to rally slightly at the open but quickly found themselves in negative territory by midday. Some calming comments from Fed Chair Powell helped reverse the early losses and stocks moved into positive territory in the afternoon. It was a very volatile week and today was no exception.

By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 222 points to finish the day at 42,801. The S&P 500 was up 31 points to close at 5,770. The Nasdaq was up 126 points to close at 18,196. Gold was down $10 to trade at $2,916 per ounce, while oil was up $.69 to trade at $67.05 per barrel WTI.

In a very interesting interview this morning on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Bessent talked about how “the markets and the economy have become hooked, become addicted, to excessive government spending and there’s going to be a detox period”. Important in that statement is that the administration is indicating that they are willing to take short term pain in both the economy and the markets if it means, in their view, that they can set the economy on solid ground for the long term. Market participants are left to determine what this means for stocks in the near term and what role the Fed will play in the coming months. As the man once said, we live in interesting times.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Jim