While everyone is fixated on the jobs report, there was actually a second important economic release today, and it happened moments ago. Specifically, the ISM Services PMI, which is described as “Survey of about 300 purchasing managers which asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories.” The report shows a very substantial miss………
Here is the monthly histogram, and I’ve highlighted the latest report.
In this upside-down world, the market is responding very favorably to this bad news. It’s a shame, too, because the ENTIRELY of the jobs data rally had been blown to hell, only to have new life blown into it by way of this latest report. As I’m typing this, we’re near the day’s highs again.
On an unrelated note, I disposed of the rest of my SLV puts position. I made 33% profits on the half I sold yesterday and only about 7% this morning, but I’m not comfortable hanging on to options that expire on February 3rd. I prefer months and months of time left on these suckers, so I decided to take the money and run, in light of this morning’s strength.
