Headlines for the Employment Report allowed the president to take a victory lap but that was like Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” nonsense.
Within the data was the buried kernel of truth—80% of new jobs were at minimum wage level.
Wages declined which isn’t good of course but the takeaway for me is the U.S. now has what amounts to a permanent under-class of workers. This plays into the hand of candidate Trump naturally as outsourcing of skilled labor with several trade deals has hit home for workers…just sayin’.
Crude oil prices continued to rise, 90% correlated to the S&P 500, as rumors of an oil price freeze have falsely become fact. It’s amusing to me that Venezuela, Russia and others have bought into this farce given the players’ lack of credibility—again, just sayin’. Epic short-squeeze is the conventional wisdom. And, the rally extended to beaten down Brazil believing arresting leaders will lead to better fundamentals.
China “hoped” to launch more stimulus given lowered economic data. Do they have this kind of credibility? I don’t think so, but it’s good for a rally—just sayin’.
Gold rose early but fell back late as popular ETF IAU has stopped issuance of new shares given high in-flows and less gold available to back it up. This makes it like a closed-end fund with premiums possible.
Market sectors moving higher included: Most sectors.
Market sectors moving lower included: Volatility (VIX), Energy MLPs (AMLP), Treasury Bonds(TLT), Dollar (UUP) and Gold Stocks (GDX).
Below is the heat map from Finviz reflecting those ETF market sectors moving higher (green) and falling (red). Dependent on the day (green) may mean leveraged inverse or leveraged short (red).
Volume picked up a little bit but we’re still running light. Breadth per the WSJ was positive once again. Markets are much overbought, (see NYMO below).
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