The Labor Department's report Friday that March saw the biggest increase in jobs in three years has boosted expectations for the economy. Investors dumped safe investments like bonds and pushed the dollar higher in a sign of confidence in the recovery. The stock market was closed for the Good Friday holiday but stock futures contracts -- investors' bets on what they think the market will do later -- blipped higher.
All signs point higher for the stock market. The trouble is that some buyers have been looking a little winded lately. Stocks may get a bounce from the jobs numbers but some analysts warn that any gains will be hard to hold onto.
Could it be because much of the job growth was Census-related hiring?
This once-a-decade temporary work force is giving a timely boost to the battered job market. Census workers accounted for nearly a third of the jobs added in March, when hiring occurred at the fastest pace in three years.
Sometime jokes write themselves. I can't joke about a head-fake economic recovery that's eventually going to disappoint a lot of investors.
