The Buzz on Business for April 9th, 2024

Markets feed off of news. That has always been the case, but it seems that the effect has been amplified lately.

On Friday, the labor market complex came in well above expectations. The economy created 303,000 new jobs in March versus the 212,000 that Wall Street expected. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8% from last month’s 3.9%. Good news, indeed.

Stocks rallied on Friday despite the fact that good news on the labor front probably means bad news on the interest rate front.

Monday, there was no news, good, bad, or indifferent, and even though it’s the same economy in the same universe, yesterday, stocks and bonds just sat there.

Stock Market Report

We’ve seen more market volatility on weekends than we saw yesterday. The indexes finished mixed but were very nearly unchanged on the session.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off less than one-tenth of 1%. It finished down 11 points at 38,893.
• Likewise, the S&P 500 was off less than one-tenth of 1%. That’s two points, and it closed at 5,202.
• The NASDAQ Composite was up less than one-tenth. It closed at 16,254, up five points.
• Breaking the trend, as it often does, the Russell 2000 was up a half percent. Ten points, and it closed at 2,074.

Bond Market Report

Rates were up across the board, but not by much.

• The yield on the 2-year treasury was up six basis points, and it closed at 4.793%.
• The 20-year was up two ticks and closed at 4.659%.

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin

• Oil was down $0.24 and closed at $86.44.
• Gold continued its winning ways. It was up $12.10. And a troy ounce now changes his hands at $2.357.50.
• Bitcoin rallied over the weekend. From 4:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday, it was up $4,146.16 and at 4:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday stood at $71,628.41.

Little News Until Wednesday

Very little news to move markets on Monday, and the lack of volatility made that clear. We don’t have much going on today either, so we’ll be interested in how markets react.

The rest of the week, though, looks to add some excitement to both the markets and this podcast. Wednesday, the CPI inflation numbers roll out. While always on the minds of Wall Street, that is especially true when interest rates hang in the balance.

Thursday, we will get continuing initial and continuing jobless claims and more inflation data as the producer price index is released.

We will be watching all of it closely so we can report all of it to you, here on the Buzz.