HONG KONG — Sometimes I find it hard to understand "Mr. Market" — if I may presume to call and poke fun at the combined wisdom of investors in stock and other markets. Immediately after announcement of a modest rise in U.S. employment numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose, triggering a general rise in stock markets around the world.
The dollar gained, the price of oil reached a 2 1/2-year high,and so-called market pundits chattered happily that this could be the start of something really good.
All this was because the United States added 216,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent, the lowest since March 2009. If this is the good news, we should be worried that markets are so easily cheered.