If there was any doubt about being ‘in the game’, investors got a healthy dose of ‘NFP#’ to move money into U.S equities. No matter how you dissect the number, it was not only a ‘surprise, but a shock and awe catalyst to the upside. Vegas odds to start the Super bowl with a safety would have been lower than the chance of this 240K+ number. Add the strong non-ISM at 10am and it was evident there was no way the morning gap was going to be faded early, (no matter how hard Cramer called for one before the bell). There’s no doubt many money managers wanted the same, but it was no meant to be. Now the noise will be about consolidating the ~2% SP gains on the week and the even bigger Nasdaq /R2K advances to buy the dip.
Simply, the ‘runway’ was cleared with all the necessary criteria in the underlying market for a successful breakout over the important Oct’07- downward trend-line. In this view, the move was confirmed early by the 300+ new highs being made by single stocks.
Talk will turn to Super bowl ads and to some place called Greece, so expectation is for some ‘hungover’ trading action to start the week.