Strong jobs data came in showing robust hiring in January broadly across sectors and industries with a gain of 225K, which blew through expectations of 165K. Despite broad gains, manufacturing continues to be a weak spot, no net new manufacturing jobs have been added over the last four months.
We’ve been talking a lot about manufacturing recently with the divergence between the ISM and Markit surveys, and that divergence has ended with the ISM Manufacturing Survey moving into expansionary territory in January for the first time since July. This comes with all of the same caveats we mentioned previously and is only survey data and one data point, yet may point to some signs of life within the manufacturing sector.
The unemployment rate crept up to 3.6%, but this is based largely on increased participation from being entering the labor pool, which continues to paint the picture of a strong labor market with some room to run.
Tesla had a wild ride (and year) this week, beginning the week in the low $700s, rocketing up to a high of $961.86, and then ending the week back in the mid $700s. Despite a loss of almost 23% from the peak, the stock is still up over 80% YTD.