While Friday’s jobs may have been more fiction than fact (see Dave in Denver’s breakdown of it here) that didn’t stop the computers from kicking the programs into overdrive and run some overhead short positions which took the S&P 500 over 1600 to close at 1614.42 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly over 15000 to close up 142.38 at 14973.96.

It doesn’t matter that the labor force is the smallest it’s been in 30 years or that hours worked dropped.  All that matters is blasting the headline number and applying some hot money salve on the affected areas to create more money for people to pull out of their 401K’s to pay for groceries and electricity, which JP Morgan is manipulating the price of.

It’s good work if you can get it.

The markets are responding to the massive money flows that are occurring.  Now that the ECB has joined the game it will be difficult to hold back the inflation thesis from traders.  Volatility in commodities will increase but the overall trend from here should be higher.  You can’t have a rising stock market without oil prices following along for the ride.  In the short term the sentiment can be bifurcated but it will regress to the mean at some point.

The beginnings of this are happening now with West Texas Intermediate Crude closing above $95 per barrel this week.  Brent will begin to play catch up as supply/demand fundamentals will give way to increased liquidity from the ECB.