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Market Summary for 1/4/2019: Market returns to uptrend

Stocks roared back on Friday to recoup and surpass Thursday's heavy losses following a stronger than expected December jobs report. The U.S. economy added 312K jobs in December to smash the consensus estimate for 178K, while the unemployment rate was 3.9% for the month and average hourly earnings were up 3.2% Y/Y. 

For the week, the Dow rose 2.3% and the S&P 500 gained 1.6%. The Nasdaq was up 4.3% on Friday alone to end the week with a gain of 3.2%. There was also some calming down in the energy market as U.S. WTI crude oil tallied its first weekly gain in a month, rising 5.8% to $47.96/bbl. The 10-year Treasury yield settled at 2.66% and the U.S. Dollar Index closed at 96.17.

More from Seeking Alpha. 

 Based on the chart below, I'm still mostly in cash (money market fund now paying about 2.3%). However, this may change, as Investor's Business Daily on Friday put the market pulse back to confirmed uptrend. I'm currently looking at SPHD, Invesco S&P High Dividend Low Volatility Fund ETF; or SCHD, Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. Or maybe a little of both, since their respective primary holdings are in different sectors of the market.


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