Investors can’t decide if good economic news is good for Wall Street.
Although stocks opened sharply higher following a solid February jobs report Friday, with 379,000 jobs added last month, the market has been on a wild ride ever since. The Dow was up more than 350 points, or 1.1%, at midday which was near its highs of the day. It had surged after the opening bell but briefly dropped into negative territory in the late morning. The S&P 500 was up 1.2%, having also clawed its way out of the red. The Nasdaq was up 0.7% and well off its lows from earlier in the session. Investors may be confused by the gyrations. The jobs gains were much bigger than expected and the unemployment rate inched down to 6.2% — a good sign for the economy. But these same metrics are raising inflation fears. And it’s why investors have been on edge this year as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. The jobs gains were much bigger than expected and the unemployment rate inched down to 6.2%. (To be sure, a lot of work remains to be done: The United States is still down 9.5 million jobs from February 2020, before the pandemic hit.
