Stocks are up strongly this morning (April 5) on delayed buying after Friday’s huge jobs gains for March (the stock market was closed for Good Friday) and on very good news from the service sector of the U.S. economy in the March survey from the Institute for Supply Management.
The ISM’s non-manufacturing activity index rebounded to 63.7 in March. That’s the higher level in the survey’s history and comes after a reading of 55.3 in February. (In this index anything above 50 indicates expansion. Below 50 indicated contraction.)
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast a reading of 59.0 for March.
This also follows on the ISM’s survey of manufacturing activity which rose to its highest level in more than 37 years in March.
As of noon today, April 5, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 1.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had climbed 1.21%. The NASDAQ Composite was ahead 1.34% and the BIG TECH heavy NASDAQ 100 was higher by 1.71.
The small cap Russell 2000 index edged higher by 0.27%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) had gained 0.35%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury down 1 basis point to 1.71%. The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) had gained 3.81% to 17.99.
