All three major indices closed the day higher by more than 2% despite mixed economic news and ongoing de-leveraging activities in the commodity market. For the week, the S&P 500 advanced 3.2% and the Dow gained 2.2%. The CRB Commodity Index, which outperformed the equity indices by a wide margin before this week, gave back 8.3%.

Investors trying to find good news in the job market probably had to wait a little longer. The closely watched initial jobless claims increased 22K to 378K during the past week while economists expected a smaller increase to 360K. The continuing claims were 2.865 million, the highest level since August 2004. Although corporations have not slashed payrolls as aggressively as they did during the past economic down cycles due to strong balance sheet, they are not eager to hire new employees either. Investors, however, did find some console in a better-than-expected reading in the Philadelphia Fed survey. The survey came at -17.4, indicating the fourth consecutive month of contraction in the manufacturing sector in that region. But the number is not as important as how it compares with expectation. So we would like to suggest all economists set their expectations for the next few months low enough so they can be easily surpassed. It certainly will have positive impact on the stock market and therefore lessening burdens on the Fed. Well, that’s just our thoughts.

This past week certainly felt like a roller-coaster journey for many investors. It was a shortened week but not short of historical moments in capital markets. The Fed took some very rare action on Sunday night by announcing new steps in adding liquidity into the financial system. The volatility hit multi-year high while the US dollar touched historical lows against many major currencies. Both gold and oil hit historical highs early in the week but only saw their prices to plunge by 10% in the second half of the week. One of the leading investment banks was sold at a price tag equalling a quarter of its building value while many financial firms had their best single day performance in history. Just in case we forgot, we also had the biggest IPO in history this week.

Well, at least it was over and a long weekend was all we need.