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CNBC News Associate
Stocks gained on Thursday as a strong reading on productivity and an easing in jobless claims helped cheer investors. Steve Grasso, director of institutional sales at Stuart Frankel and CNBC market analyst, and Alan Valdes, vice president at Kabrik Trading, shared their market insights.
“The news is getting better and better,” Valdes told CNBC.
“People keep trying to talk the market down and it’s not working, and the market is going to continue [rising] until the end of the year.”
With the federal funds interest rate at zero to 0.25 percent, Valdes said more investors are going to put their money into equities instead of banks or Treasurys, which will help boost markets further.
“The market is definitely trending up,” he said. “People feel better and even if that [unemployment] number comes at 9.9 percent tomorrow, that still means that 90 percent of the country is still working…and they’re spending, as we see it.”
In the meantime, Grasso said although the stock market will finish the year higher, it's due for a pullback in the short term.
“The reason why the market has run is that we’re so preoccupied with the dollar moves and the Fed’s language yesterday, which added the boost to the market,” he said.
“I’ve been bullish—I do think we’re going to finish the year above 1,100 [on the S&P], but we’re a little toppy today on a day-to-day basis.”
Grasso said technology and materials are the “hottest sectors” at the moment.
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More Market Points of View:
- Art Cashin: Fed 'Doesn't Believe' the Recovery Yet
- Cramer: The 8 Stocks That Control the Market
- Market Outlook, Stock Picks: BlackRock's Bob Doll
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CNBC Data Pages:
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Top Technology Companies:
Microsoft [MSFT
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Apple [AAPL
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Cisco [CSCO
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Google [GOOG
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Intel [INTC
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Disclosures:
No immediate information was available for Grasso or Valdes.
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Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes