Friday’s gains capped a solid week (and start to December) for the markets. The Dow is up 0.7% for the week while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 1.5% and 2% respectively.
Friday’s jobs report, which showed that only 245,000 jobs were added last month compared to economists’ forecasts of 469,000 according to Refinitiv, is yet another stark reminder of just how much ground the economy needs to make up before it is back to pre-coronavirus levels.
Although the unemployment rate dipped to 6.7% in November, it is still well above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5% from February.
Vaccine optimism trumping job market weakness
More help might be needed — especially as several states are enacting renewed lockdown measures light of a recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
“The jobs report shows that we’re getting back to a normal economy but the improvements going forward will be slower though,” said Thomas Hogan, senior research fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research, in an interview with CNN Business.
“There is a hard limit on how much more we can recover until restrictions are removed,” he added.
Still, investors remain cautiously optimistic about the future.
Aaron Anderson, senior vice president of research for Fisher Investments, told CNN Business that the so-called K-shaped recovery will remain uneven and choppy as we await distribution of a vaccine. The housing and stock markets continue to hold up well despite weakness in the labor market.
“We need a different letter with even more branches to describe the recovery,” Anderson said.
DoorDash would raise $3.1 billion from the IPO at the high end of that range and be valued at more than $30 billion. Airbnb is also expected to go public before the end of the year at around $30 billion.
