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 Stocks lost ground on Friday to finish 2015's first full week of trading with slight losses. The jobs report on Friday morning beat expectations, but after big rallies on Wednesday and Thursday, stocks couldn't hold their gains into the weekend. First, the scoreboard: - Dow: 17,737.4, -170.5, (-0.9%)
- S&P 500: 2,044.8, -17.3, (-0.8%)
- Nasdaq: 4,704.1, -32.1, (-0.7%)
And now, the top stories on Friday: 1. 2014 was the best year for job gains since 1999. The December jobs report showed that US payrolls grew by 252,000 as the unemployment rate fell to 5.6%, the lowest since June 2008. In 2014, the US economy added nearly 3 million jobs and finished the year on an 11-month streak of job gains over 200,000, the longest such streak since 1993-1995. 2. One piece of the jobs report did disappoint some folks, as wages fell 0.2% from November to December, missing expectations for gains of 0.2%. Wall Street currently expects that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates some time in 2015, but the Fed has said that it is looking for wages to increase before making a move. 3. Ultimately, the jobs report had a little bit of something for everyone. Those who believe the Fed should look to raise rates sooner rather than later will point to the overall payroll gains and the declining unemployment rate as evidence that the labor market is reaching full capacity. But again, those worried about wage growth will argue that Friday's report was a disappointment. But as Peter Tchir at Brean Capital noted, this report probably lets the market get back to focusing on what it has been for the last several months: oil. 4. In addition to the US jobs report, we also got a reading on the labor situation in Canada, which saw its economy lose 4,300 jobs, the second straight month that Canada's economy lost jobs. The unemployment rate in Canada remained at 6.6%. 5. The number of oil rigs in operation in the US fell again last week, falling by 61 to 1,750, bringing the number of rigs in use to fewer than were in operation this week last year. The number of oil rigs in use has tumbled as the price of oil has crashed over the last several months, and the rig count, which is provided weekly by Baker Hughes, has become a more closely watched indicator over the last month or so. According to data from the BLS, however, the number of jobs in the petroleum and coal products industries rose by 2,000 in December. 6. Fundstrat's Tom Lee, one of the most bullish strategists on Wall Street for 2015, wrote in a note to clients on Friday that the decline we saw to start the year is actually great news. Lee, who believes we are still in the midst of a bull market, noted that in all but one year that stocks were down after four trading days inside of a bull market, the S&P 500 finished the year higher. And given Lee's thesis that we are still in a bull market, he argues that investors should continue to buy all dips. Don't Miss: These 8 Stocks Should Thrive When Oil Is Falling And The Dollar Is Rising » |
