no trades for this week

No real bargains this week, except for MON which fell today. I already have two positions on it. Markets this week just rallied. Tomorrow is the March 6, 2009 lows anniversary. Beside, the job report, maybe this key date might have fueled today's rally as well. Here are some headlines:

Stocks and commodities rallied while Treasuries retreated and the dollar erased gains after a smaller-than-estimated decrease in U.S. jobs added to evidence the global economic recovery is accelerating.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1.4 percent to 1,138.7 at 4:14 p.m. for a sixth straight advance, its longest rally since the start of the year. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 1.5 percent to extend its biggest weekly increase since the beginning of December. Russia’s Micex Index jumped for a seventh day, the longest streak since July 2006. Oil and copper surged, while Treasury two-year note yields climbed four basis points to a two-week high of 0.9 percent. The Dollar Index slipped 0.2 percent after gaining as much as 0.4 percent.

Global stocks extended their advance after a U.S. government report showed the country’s unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February as the nation lost 36,000 jobs. Economists on average had forecast a decrease of 68,000 jobs and a gain in the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey.

“Today’s employment report was a real win-win,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, in a note to clients. “If it was considerably negative, it would be dismissed as snow-induced and a snapback in March was all but assured,” he wrote. “On the other hand, if the report was better than expected, and it was, then it demonstrates a strong jobs market in spite of weather related factors.”

Yearlong Rally

The S&P 500 has rallied 68 percent from a 12-year low almost a year ago as the economy returned to growth following a yearlong contraction. The gains have been led by a 144 percent rally in financial shares, while consumer-discretionary and industrial companies have almost doubled. The advance trimmed the S&P 500’s drop from a 2007 record to 27 percent as of yesterday’s close.

European stocks capped the biggest weekly gain since July as investors speculated that the European Union will assist Greece with its finances if required. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rallied 1.6 percent today and 4.6 percent this week, erasing its loss for the year.

The cost to protect against defaults on U.S. corporate bonds declined to the lowest in more than six weeks. Credit- default swaps on the Markit CDX North America Investment-Grade Index Series 13, which is linked to 125 companies, fell 2.5 basis points to a mid-price of 86.25 basis points as of 11:08 a.m. in New York, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group.

Corporate Bond Rally

Corporate bonds are rallying the most since the beginning of the year as Greece raised 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in a sale of 10-year bonds and today’s U.S. jobs report bolstered confidence in the economy.

The extra yield investors demand to hold investment-grade bonds instead of government debt narrowed 3 basis points this week to a one-month low of 165 basis points, heading for the biggest decline since the period ended Jan. 8, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market Corporate index. On Feb. 17, spreads were 171 basis points.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 0.5 percent as Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average completed its biggest weekly gain this year, rising 2.4 percent over the past five days.

Taiwan’s Taiex Index rallied 1.3 percent, leading gains in Asian stocks after a report yesterday showed a drop in jobless claims in the U.S. and two Federal Reserve Bank presidents said they believe the central bank should keep rates low until the recovery picks up.

The MSCI emerging markets gauge has rebounded to the highest level in six weeks after a selloff sent it down as much as 13 percent from its 2010 peak on Jan. 11. It’s still 1.5 percent lower for the year.

Siegel Is Bullish

“Equity returns around the world are going to be good but they’re going to be particularly good in emerging markets,” Jeremy Siegel, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong.

Emerging-market equity funds attracted $240 million in the week ended March 3, the third straight week of inflows, EPFR Global said, citing easing concerns about a contagion from the Greece debt crisis and a recovery in exports. Greece sold 10- year bonds yesterday with investors bidding for more than three times the 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) it sought to raise.

Greek bonds rose, sending the yield on the nation’s 10-year debt down three basis points to 6.07 percent.

Bond Spreads

The extra yield investors demand to own developing-nation debt over U.S. Treasuries declined 13 basis points to 2.72 percentage points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI+ Index.

China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3 percent after fluctuating earlier today as Premier Wen Jiabao warned of “latent risk” in the nation’s banks and pledged to crack down on property speculation in a speech to the National People’s Congress. The premier also affirmed an 8 percent economic-growth target, saying that the government will continue its moderately loose monetary policy and proactive fiscal stance.

China’s “government will boost expenditure on increasing the reserves of grain, edible oil, non-ferrous metals, petroleum and other important materials,” the Ministry of Finance said in a 2010 budget plan issued today during the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

Oil rose 1.6 percent to $81.51 a barrel while gasoline climbed 1.6 percent to $2.2704 a gallon in New York and touched $2.2831, the highest since Oct. 3, 2008. Copper for May delivery gained 4.2 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $3.4175 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex unit. The contract advanced 4.1 percent this week.