Should We Uncork the Champagne??

Maybe not quite yet, but we should at least put it on ice. An awesome--and incredibly surprising--nonfarms payroll report this morning. -247,000 was barely predicted, however, my friends at Argus Research did mention in its Weekly Staff Report to not be surprised if the print came in as low as -240,000. Either way, this will be the headline story of the day and every talking head will be discussing it on the tube.

The drop in the unemployment rate was also a nice surprise. And, the revisions are even moving in the right direction.

I'm certain we'll be hearing from the White House sometime this morning to take credit; and maybe it's deserved. Only time will tell if the stimulus packages from this and the prior administrations are the cause for this turnaround. Personally, I think this is just a result of a typical economic cycle, and we are due for some good times ahead. With the GDP print showing optimism last week, along with this morning's jobs report, it's clear that we have a legitimate right to be more optimistic than pessimistic.

Todd M. Schoenberger, Managing Director
LandColt Trading, Inc.