Hey, it’s a good thing the unemployment rate fell to 8.1%. Okay, yes it was because more people quit looking for work altogether. Heck, if another 10,000,000 dropped out of the workforce, President Obama would have a 5% unemployment rate!
Folks were expecting around 165,000-ish new jobs. But there seemed to be an underground consensus that the number was going to come in light, around 125,000. Although some fringe estimates were up near 200,000. The number came in at 115,000.
So that was lighter than the gloom and doomers were thinking. Plus, the Fed is likely to just keep saying that they’re at the ready and that one or two numbers don’t make a trend. Although they can speak for themselves in the weeks ahead. They normally do!
I remain mostly in cash and with some low-beta holdings – which are rallying right now a bit. A bit. When everything is red, it’s hard for anything to move up.
Sell in May…