As Brenton wrote this morning in his market preview, the one number everyone would watch today was the non-farm payrolls report. He mentioned that a poor report might lead to a rally in markets, but today's report offered the perfect balance of positive and negative data points to keep both bulls and bears happy. On the negative side, the nation's unemployment rate ticked higher from 8.2% to 8.3%. However, the glass-half-full investor took heart in seeing that payroll additions zoomed past expectations, coming in at 163,000 versus expectations for 100,000. The news appeared to speak to both sides, sparking a monstrous end-of-week rally that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 soaring 1.7% and 1.9%, respectively.
However, not every stock joined the party, with a number of the most defensive names in the Dow shunned in classic risk-on fashion. In the following video, Brenton runs through today's news, as well as the biggest losers in today's market.
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