Dow Reclaims 25K; NASDAQ Hits New Record

From an investor’s perspective, that’s about as good a jobs report as you can hope to get. The economy added 313,000 jobs last month, which blew away expectations of only about 205,000. Plus, unemployment held steady at 4.1% and wage growth was subdued. Softer-than-expected wage figures are not a great positive in and of itself, but it was welcomed by a market that’s concerned about inflation.

The major indices started the session on positive ground and never even thought about retreating; it was a steady rise higher throughout the day. The NASDAQ had the best performance and jumped by 1.79% to a new record of 7,560.8. Throughout the tariff turmoil of the past several days, this tech-laden index had performed the best and now has a six-day winning streak.

The Dow is back above 25,000 after today’s advance of 1.77% to 25,335.7, while the S&P increased 1.74% to 2786.6.

The major indices made up for last week’s sharp losses and then some. The NASDAQ jumped 4.2% this week, while the S&P climbed 3.5% and the Dow advanced more than 3.2%. (Last week the Dow finished with a loss of a little more than 3%, while the S&P was down 2% and the NASDAQ slipped a bit over 1%.)

Along with the strong jobs report, the market also got a lift this week from a watered-down tariff plan from President Trump and the possibility of talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

In the portfolios, TAZR Trader added more shares to a couple existing positions, while Value Investor picked up an entertainment conglomerate that is finally in its wheelhouse. Read more in the highlights section below:

Today's Portfolio Highlights:

TAZR Trader: The next GPU Tech Conference is all set for San Jose in 2 weeks...and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) usually has some good surprises in store. Kevin is always looking for reasons to add more to his favorite stock, so this conference and its valuation under 40X provide two good factors to do so. He added 4% to 5% to the allocation for this “king of all things AI”. But that’s not all. The editor also decided to bet on new highs by adding a 5% allocation to Direxion S&P 3X Bull ETF (SPXL). Read the complete commentary for a lot more on these new moves.

Value Investor: The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) had been out of reach for this portfolio over the last several years…but not anymore. The entertainment conglomerate is now a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) with a forward P/E of 15 and a price-to-book of 3.3. Tracey likes these value characteristics for DIS and also appreciates earnings growth expectations of 22% for fiscal 2018. Shares are down 6.7% so far this year, but the editor sees a lot of positives on the horizon for the company. She added it to the portfolio on Friday, while also selling Tutor Perini (TPC) for a 7.6% gain. Read the full write-up for more.

Momentum Trader: "Green all over the screen today as a great Non-Farm Payrolls report helped rocket us higher. The economy added 313,00 jobs last month, well ahead of expectations. The result was a broad-based rally which hit nearly every corner of the market. We are getting closer to reaching escape velocity but for now, the market is still moving within a few points of the 50-day moving average.

"It was a fantastic report, giving the market a huge boost of momentum heading into the weekend. We’re going to need that and more as we’ve got the Fed coming up. They are set to meet March 20th and 21st. Expect to hear plenty of speculation about hikes." -- Dave Bartosiak, who is also editor of Surprise Trader and our new Blockchain Innovators service.

Have a Great Weekend,
Jim Giaquinto

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