New York – Stocks surged Friday, extending the two-month rally, after a government report showed employers cut fewer jobs than expected last month. The release of the long-awaited bank stress test results also gave the market a boost.
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The Dow Jones industrial average gained 164 points, or 2%. The S&P 500 index rose 22 points, or 2.4%. The Nasdaq composite added 23 points, or 1.3%.
The major gauges ended higher for the week as well. The Nasdaq has now ended higher for 9 weeks straight. The Dow and S&P 500 have now ended higher for 8 of the last 9 weeks.
Stocks have been rallying since early March, as investors have bet that the worst for the economy and financial sector has already happened. The S&P has jumped 36% since hitting a more than 12-year low on March 9th.
Although the jobs report was not positive, it could have been worse, said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management. That appeared to be sufficient reason to get investors back into the market.
“We seem to be turning a corner here with the pace of the contraction in both employment and the overall economy,” he said.
“Investors’ confidence seems to have returned,” said David Goerz, who oversees $17 billion as chief investment officer at Highmark Capital Management in San Francisco. “There’s relief from the results of the stress tests and interesting finds from the unemployment report.”
Should we give Obama any credit for this, or does he only get the blame when it went down during the inaguration?
i will re-post what i wrote in another forum on this topic to help you understand some basic information about the recent stock rally
The massive stock market decline in January and February had a large part to do with the lack of confidence in Obama’s economic policies especially his sec treasury Geithner. In February there was a near bi partisan support for removing him from his post.
The rally that started march 9th had absolutely nothing to do with obama. It started with comments from citigroup and Bank of America(considered the weakest banks) that they were profitable in January and February. This was followed by many other banks saying business was improving(including wells fargo reporting record profits), and better economic numbers, and later followed by much better than expected earnings and many signs the economy had bottomed. If anyone gets credit for the rally it is the aggressive action of the Fed and Tarp which averted a complete financial meltdown. All of these events had nothing at all to do with Obama’s policies. I am sure the revisionist historians will give the credit with obama, but anyone besides a blatant partisan cannot claim that Obama caused the economy to bottom in early 2009.
This is not to say that Obama’s policies will not help economic growth in the future. I am sure his tax cuts which started in april and stimulus will help give the economy a big shot in the arm to increase growth. However when the market rally started March 9th it had absolutely nothing to do with obama.
i will re-post what i wrote in another forum on this topic to help you understand some basic information about the recent stock rally
The massive stock market decline in January and February had a large part to do with the lack of confidence in Obama’s economic policies especially his sec treasury Geithner. In February there was a near bi partisan support for removing him from his post.
The rally that started march 9th had absolutely nothing to do with obama. It started with comments from citigroup and Bank of America(considered the weakest banks) that they were profitable in January and February. This was followed by many other banks saying business was improving(including wells fargo reporting record profits), and better economic numbers, and later followed by much better than expected earnings and many signs the economy had bottomed. If anyone gets credit for the rally it is the aggressive action of the Fed and Tarp which averted a complete financial meltdown. All of these events had nothing at all to do with Obama’s policies. I am sure the revisionist historians will give the credit with obama, but anyone besides a blatant partisan cannot claim that Obama caused the economy to bottom in early 2009.
This is not to say that Obama’s policies will not help economic growth in the future. I am sure his tax cuts which started in april and stimulus will help give the economy a big shot in the arm to increase growth. However when the market rally started March 9th it had absolutely nothing to do with obama.
I think this is a suckers rally. The blatent manipulation by the feds and the corruption will eventually catch up with them. this whole bank bailout business is very bad for us. We’re telling the bug banks that they can take as much risk as they want cuz we, the tax payers, got their backs. They can even continue taking huge bonuses while we pay for their mistakes. A small bank that took less risk has nothing to offer its clients but that flimsy FDIC coverage. I’m of the opinion that the banks need to be broken up into smaller pieces so they can’t hold us hostage again in the future.