runner, new york city marathon 2011
Mamta Badkar
The last jobs report before the election was pretty good.  But stocks sold off anyway.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 13,093, -139.4, -1.0 percent

S&P 500: 1,414, -13.3, -0.9 percent

NASDAQ: 2,982, -37.9, -1.2 percent

And now the top stories:
  • The October jobs report did not disappoint.  US companies added 171k nonfarm payrolls, which was much higher than the 125k expected by economists.  Even more, revisions added 80k jobs to the September number.  A higher participation rate caused the unemployment rate to climb to 7.9 percent.  Markets, which were flat prior to the report, jumped.  

  • The strength in hiring contradicted various business surveys, which showed that corporations had been reluctant to invest and hire as the country edges closer to the fiscal cliff.

  • The jobs report wasn't all roses, however. Economist David Rosenberg pointed to weekly earnings, which fell 0.3 percent.  "That has a certain deflationary feel to it and the price of labor should hardly be contracting if the jobs market is in fact returning to normal in any meaningful way," he wrote in a note.

  • Unfortunately, the market rally was shortlived, and stocks spent the rest of the day grinding lower.  There were many theories to explain this: disappointing earnings are catching up with the market, strong jobs means less Fed stimulus, strong jobs means Romney won't get elected president, Hurricane Sandy costs could be higher-than-expected, investors and hedge funds were dumping stocks, etc.  

  • Another asset class that ate it was gold, which fell around $40 per ounce to settle at $1,675.  Traders may be betting that the improving labor market reduces the odds of more Fed-driven monetary stimulus. 

  • Overseas, the eurozone countries reported that their manufacturing sector was contracting.  Spain, Italy, and Germany all said that the contraction was accelerating.

  • Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announces Q3 earnings after the closing bell.