In this Nov. 16, 2020 file photo a man wearing a mask passes the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Stocks are moving modestly higher in early trading on Wall Street as investors cautiously welcome signs of calm in the bond market. The S&P 500 was up 0.4% early Thursday, March 4, 2021, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 1.47%. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, in New York. Stocks are opening broadly higher on Wall Street as investors welcome news that hiring by U.S. employers picked up last month at the fastest pace since October. The S&P 500 added 0.5% in the early going Friday; March 5, however the benchmark index is still on track for its third weekly loss in a row. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
Stocks were broadly higher in early morning trading Friday, as investors welcome news that hiring by U.S. employers picked up last month at the fastest pace since October, a potential sign of recovery from the more than year-long pandemic and economic malaise.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.5% as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 0.8% as the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%. On Thursday the S&P 500 briefly dipped into the red for the year and is on track for its third consecutive weekly loss.
U.S. employers added a robust 379,000 jobs last month, a sign that the economy is strengthening as confirmed viral cases drop, consumers spend more and states and cities ease business restrictions.
The February gain marked a sharp pickup from the 166,000 jobs that were added in January and the loss of 306,000 in December. Yet it represents just a fraction of the roughly 9.6 million jobs that the economy needs to regain to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The bond market, which has been betting on stronger economic growth as well as the potential for higher inflation, pushed bond yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was trading at 1.60%, its highest level in more than a year. Only a week ago, markets reacted negatively to the 10-year note crossing the 1.50% mark.
Technology stocks continued their slow march downward as bond yields rise. Tech stocks tend to be more expensive than other stocks per dollar of earnings a company can generate, a concept known as the price-to-earnings ratio. Because tech stocks are pricier, they tend to sell off when bond yields become more attractive.
In contrast, bank stocks continued their climb higher as higher bond yields mean banks can charge higher interest rates on loans. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were all up 1% or more.
Investors were disappointed with remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday when he said inflation will likely pick up in the coming months, though he cautioned that the increase would be temporary and would not be enough for the Fed to alter its low-interest rate policies.
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7 Electric Vehicle (EV) Stocks That Are Ready to Rebound The electric vehicle (EV) sector was nearly as frothy as the “pandemic stocks” in 2020. It wasn’t that the EV sector was dormant during the Trump administration.
But, as the saying goes, elections have consequences. And Wall Street understands they can make money in any administration. And as a bet that Joe Biden would win the presidency, electric vehicle stocks soared.
For starters, the Biden administration has already said it will prioritize climate change like no administration ever has. And one way they are going to do that is to incentivize the production and purchase of electric vehicles.
And to take advantage of this shift towards electric vehicle stocks, many private companies raced to get in on the action. The preferred way for many of these companies to go public was via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). A SPAC is basically a shortcut to the traditional IPO process.
However, what goes up frequently goes down and since late February, EV stocks have been getting battered. But this is creating an opportunity because the electric vehicle is still supposed to see exceptional growth over the next five years.
To help you take advantage of this we’ve created this special presentation that includes seven stocks that appear to be ready to take the next leg up.
View the "7 Electric Vehicle (EV) Stocks That Are Ready to Rebound ".
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