EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500 +1.70%(2,276.98); NASDAQ +2.56% (5,521.06); DJIA +0.1% (19,963.8)

This week’s reports:

December’s Unemployment Rate rose to 4.7% from November’s 4.6%. Labor Force Participation Rate rose to 62.7% from November’s downwardly revised 62.6%. Nonfarm Payrolls fell to 156K from November’s upwardly revised 204K.
December’s Average Weekly Hours remained unchanged at +34.3. Average Hourly Earnings rose to 0.4% from November’s -0.1%.
December’s Markit Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.3 from November’s 54.2. Markit Services PMI rose to 53.9 from November’s 53.4. Markit PMI Composite rose to 54.1 from November’s 53.7.
December’s ISM Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.7 from November’s 53.2. December’s ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI remained unchanged at +57.2.
November’s Factory Orders fell to -5.4% m/m from October’s +2.8%.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending December 30h fell by 28K to 235K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending December 23th rose by 16K to 2,112K.
US stocks advanced, reversing an earlier decline as the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with 20,000 for nearly four hours. Equities also got a boost from government data showing that wages in December increased the most since 2009.