The surge higher in stocks continued into the release of this month’s Nonfarm Payrolls data.  The Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P all printed new all-time highs overnight.  The mini Russell is pressing up against yesterday’s new all-time high but hasn’t overtaken it just yet.  Consensus for the Nonfarm data was 191,000, but it came in at only 148,000.  Countering that disappointing data was an upward revision in November’s data by a total of 24,000, taking it from 228,000 up to 252,000.  Average hourly earnings (M/M) came in at 0.3%, which is an improvement on the 0.1% (revised lower from 0.2%) that we saw in last month’s release.  The year over year average hourly earnings remained unchanged at 2.5%.  While we just saw our lowest reading since July, the market (thus far at least) doesn’t seem too deterred by the data and continues its ascent.  Goldman Sachs suggested the number would more than likely be a bit underwhelming due to winter storms.  It appears market participants agree, as a miss like this would generally put the brakes on such a rally.  Factory orders and the ISM Non-Mfg Index data are set to be released later on today.

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Bill Dixon

Senior Market Strategist

Bill began his career working with a firm of technical commodity traders specializing in the treasury and metal markets. In 2006 he moved over to Lind-Waldock as a broker. Bill joined RJO Futures in 2011.

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