The markets rose to a new high on Wednesday only to be met with some consolidation on Thursday, ahead of today’s labor report for the month of March. That is going to be the big story today. Economists expect the US to generate 200,000 non-farm jobs in March. Look for upward revisions in past numbers. The real question is whether or not employers began to ramp up hiring as the winter weather began to abate in anticipation of spring and summer demand? It certainly makes logical sense but the way in which the labor data is collected makes prognosticating the results to be a crap shoot. Many people believe that the jobs report is just a fabrication. All I know is that we will get some knee jerk reaction to the report. If it is good then stocks will trade higher, because for the stock market that is the path of least resistance. It will take a really horrible report to knock stocks down.
GrubHub IPO Priced
I will have my eye on GrubHub (GRUB) the online / mobile restaurant order and delivery company which priced its initial public offering at $26. I think this is a stock worth holding in our Restaurant & Food Chain portfolio and could nibble on it after it opens for trading.
Google Split Confuses Market
Google split itself into two classes of shares, Google Class A (GOOGL) and Google Class C (GOOG) yesterday. In the process, this caused much confusion in brokerage accounts and in the markets. So, if you owned 1 share of the old Google you now own 1 share each of GOOG and GOOGL. Unless you want to waste transaction costs, it is not worth consolidating all holdings into one class of shares. Instead, the trick is to buy Class A when you desire to add to and sell Class C when you desire to cut your exposure to Google.
While the markets have had a good week, tech and small cap stocks are still lagging. If you are looking to add exposure to the market I would do it there as eventually the laggards will become leaders.
Disney Releasing Captain America Sequel
Disney’s (DIS) latest installment of its Marvel Captain America series will be released today across the country. I expect another blockbuster for Disney (DIS) and will have to watch the first Captain America again before going to see the sequel with my son.
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Disclosure: At the time of this commentary Scott Rothbort, his family and/or clients of LakeView AssetManagement, LLC was long DIS, GOOG and GOOGL — although positions can change at any time.
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