Wall Street closes in the red by over 2% across the DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ

Wall Street made an impressive turnaround on Friday following heavy losses in both Asian and European markets due to global growth concerns following the ECB on Thursday, Chinese and US trade data disappointments. A trade war truce is somewhere over the horizon and the mood stays risk-off. However, despite that toxic cocktail, the bulls managed to save the day and stocks rallied mid-day to close slightly underwater.

The nonfarm payrolls were an additional blow, but prices soon turned around after a knee-jerk sell-off. 

The nonfarm payrolls data arrived as follows: 

20k vs 180k headline - This is the worst since Sept 2017. the prior was 304K and revised to +311K. However, not all is bad in the detail of the report. 

• Two-month net revision +12K
• Unemployment rate 3.8% vs 3.9% expected
• Participation rate 63.2% vs 63.2% prior
• Avg hourly earnings +0.4% vs +0.3% exp
• Avg hourly earnings 3.4% y/y vs +3.3% exp
• Private payrolls +25K vs +170K exp
• Manufacturing +4K vs +12K exp
• U6 underemployment 7.3% vs 8.1% prior

For the week, the S&P was down 2.2%, the Dow lost 2.2%, and the Nasdaq dropped 2.4%. 

DJAI levels

The DJIA's 78.6% Fibo of the Oct swing highs to Dec rout lows with the confluence of the rising trend-line support gave way earlier in the week and price extended to test the Kijun -sen while developing below the 21-D SMA cap. A key downside target at the 61.8% Fibo level positioned beneath the 25000 psychological level at 24847 is back on the cards at this juncture and bears will target the 38.2% Fibo at 24500 and then the 50% Fibo just below the psychological 24000 level.