S&P 500 ticks above 2,000 as energy offsets tech slide

Another day of nothing but good news, not only domestically but globally as well, sent the Dow up another 67 points, the S&P having one more day over 2,000 and the index up for the fifth consecutive session and up more than 23% since January.  Oil had another terrific day, up more than 5 percent in today's trading.  The recent boost in the entire energy sector has helped encourage the stock bounce.  It seems that oil has finally found its footing and that's what Wall Street has been waiting for.  Trading was very rigorous at 9 billion.

Succinct Summations of Week’s Events 3.4.16 (+ weekend reads)

It's time for everyone's favorite post -- the week's summary, courtesy of Barry Ritholtz.  At the top of the list of course is the much feted jobs numbers in Friday's news with employment data not only coming in much higher than expected, but prior months' figures being upped as well.  This Sunday's bonus is Ritholtz's heralded weekend reading list.  And at the top of that list is this week's most intriguing piece of opinion from Barron's, "Trump or Clinton: Who's Better for Investors?"  (The answer may surprise you.)  I would also urge everyone to take a good close look at the S&P history chart at the bottom, in which the index's biggest 1% daily moves dating from 1928 to 2016 is all laid out in one very crisp little chart.  Isn't it also interesting to note that most of these big moves happened right before a major economic boom?  2016 is one of the years that we've had a big 1% move.  Who knows?

10 Guaranteed Ways to Retire Rich

I'm doing a slight departure from the norm this weekend by borrowing from AOL Finance instead of Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture.  But this particular article struck me as not only cogent but particularly well written on a topic of great interest to all of us.  Nothing particularly new here but the advice is all very traditional and very sound and a good reminder every now and then doesn't hurt anything.

10 Guaranteed Ways to Retire Rich - DailyFinance

Wall Street pulls off a rare four-day winning streak

Well, the February employment numbers came in big.  What was expected to be an optimistic 190,000 new jobs (up from 151,000 in January) was instead a monumental 242,000 new jobs, once again bolstering investor confidence that the economy was strong and that perhaps the Fed may take the hint and decide no further rate hikes are warranted this year.  There was also more terrific news besides the very unusual 4-day winning streak for the S&P.  Aside from the fears of recession sort of now becoming a non-issue, the Dow has once again topped 17,000 and the S&P landed exactly 1/100% below 2,000 - both considered very psychologically important thresholds.  Today the Dow is up nearly 63, the S&P nearly 7.  But just to temper the optimism ever so slightly, the high employment numbers still represent a disproportionately high number of low wage and less than full-time jobs.  So there is still work to do, the battle not yet won.  Volume was very high at 10.3 billion.

Wall Street snaps up shares in late-day scramble

A late day scramble?  That's hardly what the chart says.  The upswing started at 11:30 a.m. and kept going steadily the rest of the session.  Needless to say, it was another good day for oil with crude now up 35% from last month and both the energy and financial sectors now subsequently lifted into positive territory for the year after the worst January in seven years.  Just as energy is up, the financial sector has also seen a 13% boost in 3 weeks.  All in all, investors see these developments as a sign of improving sentiment, which is what the market's been looking for a good long time now.  Volume was right in line with recent elevated averages at 8.8 billion shares traded.

Wall St. rises late, led by energy and bank shares

It was quite the choppy day with the Dow being down as much as 100 points in mid-session but then recovering to close 34 points up.  Really, there was no good reason for the earlier sell off so it should have been 130 points up.  Oil had another good day, once again reassuring investors that we are not heading into recession and that China's impact on the U.S. markets would be minimal.  Even the prospect of a Fed rate hike with all the good news lately did not faze anyone but was in fact taken as good news for a change as it (surprise, surprise) boosts bank stocks.  Continuing strong jobs data bolstered the view that the economy was in good shape and the Volatility Index closed at its lowest level for the year.  At 8.2 billion, volume was close to recent averages.

Wall Street chalks up strongest day in a month

The big rally Wall Street should have had yesterday when oil shot up 3% did finally happen today when oil continued its rally another 2% shooting the Dow way up another 348 points.  A plethora of other good news helped -- new orders growth, improving inventories, construction spending, strong auto sales.  The bottom line is that, at least for today, investors are back to believing that oil's big recession may finally be over and that the general fears that China's problems may soon be causing a global recession are unfounded.  Volume was right back up there with recent elevated averages at 8.8 billion shares.