Stocks Rally as Growth Worries Fade

U.S. stocks surged on today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average marking its best session this year, as Wall Street embraced a drop in applications for jobless benefits as indicative of an improving U.S. labour market and economy, a day ahead of the monthly jobs report.

“The market was heavily oversold. you tried for two days to have a credible rebound and this is the first one you’ve seen. This is a combination of short covering and the buy the dippers,” said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS.  Perhaps we will see a further bounce from here.

Talk from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi helped push up the euro, with one trader saying the ‘risk on’ trade started after Draghi’s comments boosted the currency, which jumped after Draghi said there was no deflation problem.  The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold Thursday, despite growing concerns about the threat of deflation in the eurozone and the outlook for global growth.

European markets closed up more than 1%, while Asian markets also mostly ended with modest gains.

News Sources:  CNBC and CNN Money

The portfolio:

Great day for the new portfolio.  Now it’s down to the non-farm payrolls report tomorrow morning at 8:30am to indicate that things are not as bad as they seemed a few short days ago….how fickle the market can be!

Sorry I dumped GMCR before it’s deal with Coke, oh well…Next!

Bring on the bulls!

John

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