 The Market Sum | Insight after the bell
By Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief 
Friday's Headlines 1. U.S. markets jump on better-than-expected jobs report 2. Major stocks hit all-time highs 3. Hopes of more Fed cuts have faded 4. Next week will be huge...here's what to expect Markets Closed
Year-to-Date
 credit: Ira L. Black - Corbis / Getty Images
Markets Today U.S. markets ripped higher today following a better-than-expected November employment report that showed 266,000 new jobs were added to company payrolls. That was much higher than forecast, and the job gains were strong in nearly every sector of the economy, particularly manufacturing and healthcare. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, its lowest level since 1969. The employment to population ratio is at 61%, its highest level since 2008. Any concerns about a dramatic slowdown in the U.S. economy that would translate into a softening of the jobs market are gone, at least for now.
Headlines
Scorekeeping On days like today, it's hard not to keep score of some notable records that have fallen. We share these to help put market movements in perspective, but also to demonstrate where the momentum is in the market.
These stocks were among those that hit all-time highs today:
When you have Apple and Nike making all-time highs on the same day as Spam maker Hormel, and construction equipment giant Ingersoll-Rand also hitting their high water marks, you know the bullishness is contagious.  A Fed Pause Ahead With today's blockbuster jobs report and the inflation rate in the U.S. just under 2%, the Federal Reserve is seeing what it wants from the U.S. economy. That means the likelihood of more interest rate cuts seems even more remote than it did yesterday, or even a month ago. Now we are starting to hear chatter that the Fed might consider an interest rate hike in 2020 to cool things down. It's just a whisper now, but it could amplify quickly.
The Fed will meet next week to discuss interest rates, and according to the CME's Fed Watch tool, there is less than a 1% chance it will cut interest rates, according to futures traders. There is a 0% chance the Fed will hike rates at that meeting, and there is less than a 1% chance it will raise rates at its next three meetings, but a lot could change between now and then.
chart courtesy CME  What Could Change? A lot could change, and a lot of those changes depend on what happens in the next several weeks. The U.S. and China are 9 days away from the next tariff deadline on December 15th, when the U.S. has threatened to impose 15% tariffs on $156 billion in additional Chinese goods. Tariffs have been the great unknown for the past year, and this week has been Exhibit A for the uncertainties they can cause.
Employment reports can also be revised, as we have seen several times this year. While the November report was robust, it could be revised lower next month, or the following month as the Labor Dept. collects more information. Manufacturing and business spending growth in the U.S. have been declining over the past several months due to global economic uncertainties. Those declines could accelerate, causing hiring to slow which could impact consumer spending. On the flip side, inflation could kick into high gear and stress out consumers who have been keeping the economy on track. That could lead the Fed to raise rates to slow down the train.
I'll stop raining on this parade now, and enjoy the momentum.
Here's what's happening next week: The upcoming week has a plethora of big decisions and announcements. Saudi Aramco will become the largest publicly-trade company in the world, the United Kingdom will go to the polls to decide who should steer Brexit negotiations, and not one, but two major central banks announce rate decisions. Strap in everyone.
Before the news, here are the year-to-date returns for different asset classes.  Here's a brief look at the week ahead.
Friday December 13:
chart courtesy YCHARTS  Cosmetics maker Ulta Beauty shot up 11.1% today after it beat earnings estimates. Alexion Pharmaceuticals' board rejected hedge fund Elliot Management's proposal for a "proactive sale." Investors seemed to agree with the decision, sending the stock up 6.0% regaining most of yesterday's loss. Several oil companies rose today as OPEC lowered production targets, raising prices. Among those rising on the news were Apache, Helmerich & Payne, and Devon Energy, which rose 7.6%, 5.4%, and 4.9% respectively.  Industrial company Ball Corp fell 3.9%. ViacomCBS, the newly merged media conglomerate, fell 2.8%. Several homebuilders fell with D.R. Horton, NVR, and Lennar falling 2.8%, 2.4% and 1.7% respectively. Word of the Day  Image Source: Bettmann / Getty Images
Today in History December 6, 1877 Today in 1877 Thomas Edison played back a recorded human voice for the first time. He recorded a verse of the song "Mary had a little lamb" on a tinfoil-coated cylinder. This was not the first voice recording, which was made by French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott made in 1860. However, Scott's machine could not play back the sound, and the recording was only played back in 2008 when it was digitized. Edison's tin-foil recordings only lasted for a few playings, and were replaced with wax cylinders, developed by Chichester Bell (cousin of Alexander Graham Bell), and Charles Tainter. Initially cylinders could not be reproduced and so each recording had to be made individually until, in 1901, a way to form many recordings from a mold was developed. Cylinder recordings were eventually superseded by disc records in the first few decades of the 20th century, which could hold longer recordings.
Source: https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-sound-recordings/history-of-the-cylinder-phonograph/
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Friday, December 6, 2019
Great Jobs!
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