Stocks closed higher on Friday and for the week.

That makes it 3 up weeks in a row for the Dow, and 2 up weeks in a row for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, the small-cap Russell 2000, and the mid-cap S&P 400.

Last week's FOMC announcement gave the market what it was looking for: the Fed acknowledged the progress that's been made in bringing down inflation over the last two years, but also noted that progress has recently stalled. Nonetheless, they are still expecting to cut rates later this year. In the meantime, they announced they would be slowing down the shrinking of their balance sheet (reducing the amount of Treasuries they let mature without being reinvested), starting in June.

Stocks on Thursday soared on the news.

The rally continued on Friday after the lighter than expected Employment Situation Report.

The consensus was calling for 243,000 new jobs being created last month (190,000 in the private sector, and 53,000 in the public). Instead, we got 175,000 (167,000 private and 8,000 public). The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% vs. last month's 3.8% and views for the same. The participation rate was steady at 62.7%. And average hourly earnings rose 0.2% m/m vs. the consensus for 0.3%, while the y/y rate came in at 3.9% vs. last month?s 4.1% pace and estimates for 4.0%.

Additionally, February's jobs tally was revised down by -34,000 to 236K from 270K, while March was revised up by 12,000 to 315K from 303K. Combined, the revisions were -22,000 lower than previously reported.

The market cheered the softer numbers because it shows the labor market, and thus the economy, is doing just fine, but not overheating, which could reignite inflation.

At this stage of the game, a slower growth rate should help weaken inflation. That in turn benefits the economy, and if this continues, can give the Fed the confidence to begin cutting rates.

I hesitate to say we have entered the period where bad news is good, because it's hard to make the case that 175,000 jobs is bad. But these numbers are soft-landing type numbers, and bodes well for the market.

For those interested, the biggest job gains came from Healthcare with 56,000 new jobs; Social Assistance jobs increased by 31,000; Transportation and Warehousing were up 22,000; Retail Trade was up 20,000; Construction picked up 9,000; and Government Employment added 8,000 jobs.

In other news, the PMI Composite report saw the Composite Index come in at 51.3, down from last month's 52.1, but up from views for 50.9, while the Services Index also came in at 51.3, down from last month's 51.7, but up from the consensus for 50.9.

And the ISM Services Index slipped to 49.4 vs. last month's 51.4 and estimates for 52.0.

We've got another busy week of earnings this week with over 1,900 companies on deck to report including Palantir and Vertex Pharmaceuticals on Monday, Disney and Datadog on Tuesday, and Uber, Airbnb, and Arm Holdings on Wednesday, amongst many others.

After another week's worth of gains, it appears the worst of the pullback is behind us as the big three indexes are within striking distance of their all-time highs. The Dow is just -2.78% below their all-time high, the S&P 500 is just -2.41% below theirs, and the Nasdaq Composite is only -1.74% away.

We'll see if the markets can build upon their recent gains and add another week to their winning streak.

See you tomorrow,