The Department of Labor today announced that the unemployment rate in October dropped to 7.0% as 203,000 new jobs were added in the month. Almost 300,000 fewer people were counted as unemployed while the labor force participation rate increased, both of which are good things. In addition, the average work week increased a bit, as did average wages. To sum it all up, this was probably the best employment report since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008.
In recent months, this type of good economic news was often seen by the market as bad news because it suggested that it would force the Federal Reserve to accelerate its timetable to begin tapering QE. Following that logic, without QE to prop up the stock market, equity prices would fall. This convoluted thinking has left us with the backwards reality of “bad is good” and “good is bad” for the past few months.
So as an investor, where does today’s action leave us? At this moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (#DJIA) is up 193 points to 16,015. It could be that stock market participants finally understand that it’s good to have better employment; that it’s a good thing to have better than expected GDP growth (the second estimate for Q3 was 3.6%) and that the housing market should not collapse with the 10-year treasury around 3%. I believe that the Fed will not begin to ease before April. And if they do it right, they can reduce their monthly bond purchases slowly enough that it shouldn’t do any real harm to the economy. Indeed, if the economy is strong enough to stand on its own, that’s good for everyone, including the stock market.
Therefore, my clients and I remain fully invested in the market. I expect this rally to extend through the rest of this year and into 2014. And if the rumor is true that Congressional leaders are inching closer to a bi-partisan budget deal on the debt ceiling and the deficit which will include getting rid of the harsh sequester cuts, then we could really be looking at a very bright picture for the stock market for months to come.