| Global Market Wrap-Up - February 3, 2012 |
February 3, 2012 - 9:19pm — mhanna
U.S. stocks rallied Friday on the back of improvement in two key economic reports, the monthly employment reports and the ISM Non Manufacturing survey. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% and NASDAQ 1.6%.
Germany's DAX closed 1.7% higher, Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.8%, and France's CAC-40 gained 1.5%.
Mark Hanna, known in the financial community as "TraderMark," provides his insightful daily market coverage in this column, exclusive to Euro Pacific Capital.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Please feel free to repost with proper attribution and all links included.
Friday, February 3, 2012
By:
Mark Hanna - Companies added 243,000 jobs in January — while official government unemployment fell to 8.3%, the lowest in three years. The 243,000 jobs added exceeded the estimate by economists of 155,000. The broader unemployment rate, which includes workers marginally attached or those who work part time but wish for full time work fell from 15.2% to 15.1%. Hiring in November and December by was revised upward by 60,000 jobs.
- Despite these gains the participation rate fell to 63.7%, dropping from 64.0%. A normal participation rate is in the 66-67%, which would reflect an unemployment rate roughly 2% higher than currently stated.
- The Institute for Supply Management said that its index of non-manufacturing activity jumped to 56.8 percent in January from 53 percent in December. Economists had expected the overall index to edge up 0.2 percentage points. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.
- The survey's employment index jumped to its highest level since February 2006; the employment index rose to 57.4 percent from 49.8 percent. Companies said business activity, new orders, exports and imports all picked up.
Germany's DAX closed 1.7% higher, Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.8%, and France's CAC-40 gained 1.5%.
- European retail sales dropped 0.4% in December after a similar decrease in November; economists had forecast a gain of 0.3%.
Mark Hanna, known in the financial community as "TraderMark," provides his insightful daily market coverage in this column, exclusive to Euro Pacific Capital.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Please feel free to repost with proper attribution and all links included.
Investing in foreign securities involves risks, such as currency fluctuation, political risk, economic changes, and market risks. Precious metals and commodities in general are volatile, speculative, and high-risk investments. As with all investments, an investor should carefully consider his investment objectives and risk tolerance as well as any fees and/or expenses associated with such an investment before investing. International investing may not be suitable for all investors.
Dividend yields change as stock prices change, and companies may change or cancel dividend payments in the future. The fluctuation of foreign currency exchange rates will impact your investment returns. Past performance does not guarantee future returns, investments may increase or decrease in value and you may lose money.
Security industry regulators would like you to know that our investment strategies are based partially on Peter Schiff’s personal economic forecasts which may not occur. His views are outside of the mainstream of current economic thought. Investors should carefully consider these facts before implementing our strategy.