"DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE REQUIRES INTERM TEST AT 25,982 TO MAINTAIN UPSIDE." https://www.northridge123456.com/post/greenmark-101-flashed-third-buy-signal-of-dow-jones-industrial-average-on-april-23-2020-and. Now at 24,551 + 372, the DJIA confirms upside bias as suggested by GREENMARK 101 and less than 150 points away.
Midday Summary: Stocks extend gains as investors brush aside ugly jobs report.
It's another typical day on Wall Street, which means more gains and more dismal employment data. The S&P 500 is up 1.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 1.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 1.6%.
In April, nonfarm payrolls declined by 20.5 million and the unemployment rate increased to 14.7% , but the market appears confident that the data can't get any worse than this, as states and companies step up reopening efforts. It turns out that many of the laid-off employees have a similar perspective: the employment report noted that the number of persons said to be on "temporary layoff" increased to 18.063 million from 1.848 million. Things will get better, according to both the stock market and these former employees.
As such, all 11 S&P 500 sectors and all 30 Dow components are trading higher today. The energy (+2.6%) and consumer staples (+2.0%) sectors are currently up the most, while the health care sector (+0.7%) is the only sector up less than 1%.
Corporate news has supported the reopening/recovery narrative today. Uber (UBER 32.90, +1.96, +6.3%) said it's seen week-on-week growth over the past three weeks, tickets for Walt Disney's (DIS 108.04, +2.49, +2.4%) Shanghai theme park reportedly sold out within minutes, and Boeing (BA 132.05, +3.42, +2.7%) plans to reopen its 737 Max factory later this month.
Today's advance brings the S&P 500 back above the 2900 level, which has been an area of resistance for the benchmark index. It last closed above 2900 on April 30, but one key difference between then and now is that hedging interest, and expectations for future volatility, have decreased.
The CBOE Volatility Index is down 15.5% to 28.86 since that date, including today's 8.2% decline.
U.S. Treasuries have come under recent selling pressure with the yield on the 10-Treasury note up three basis points to 0.66%. The U.S. Dollar Index is down 0.2% to 99.68.
Reviewing today's economic data:
April nonfarm payrolls declined by 20.5 million. April private sector payrolls declined by 19.52 million. April unemployment rate was 14.7% , versus 4.4% in March. April average hourly earnings were up 4.7% after increasing an upwardly revised 0.5% (from 0.4%) in March.
The key takeaway from the report is that there is a lot more to it than meets the headline eye, most of which speaks to the depth of the country's economic problems and the challenges in bouncing back from them in rapid-fire fashion.
Wholesale inventories declined 0.8% in March after declining 0.7% in February.