HAPPY 15TH ANNIVERSARY TO STEPHANIE SHIELDS!  March 7th, 2013 marked the 15th year that Stephanie has been with Klaas Financial. Thank you for being such a special part of our success over the last 15th years. 

Click HERE to listen to a SPECIAL radio show segment from March 6th, talking about the Dow Jones Index hitting an all-time high on March 5th, 2013.

The US markets were up last week as the Dow Jones closed at an all-time high of 14,253 last Tuesday, March 5th on heavy trading volume. Analysts and economists around the world have been quoted saying “the lost decade is now over”.

As of last Friday, March 8th, 488 of the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500 had reported 2012 Q4 earnings. With about 70% of companies beating estimates and a 5.8% average earnings increase from a year earlier, most analysts are feeling good about the growth prospects of the US economy and the stock market in 2013.

The ISM non-manufacturing index posted a 1 point increase last week to a higher-than-expected reading of 56 which indicates an even stronger pace of overall growth relative to what was already a strong reading in January.

The jobs market got a nice boost on Friday as payroll jobs in February were much stronger than expected. Nonfarm payrolls increased 236,000 and caused the unemployment rate to drop from 7.9% to 7.7%…its lowest level since the end of 2008. Additionally, top Fed officials have indicated that while they are pleased with the employment trend, they will need to see “substantial progress” in the jobs market before withdrawing from their plans to keep short-term interest rates near zero. This means that they will continue their $85 billion per month bond purchasing program which is good news for the stock markets as it loves “free money”.