Welcome to Thoughts on the Market.

I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist from Oregon

Stanley.

Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about

the latest trends in the financial marketplace.

It's Monday, August 9th at 1 p.m. in New York, so let's get after it.

During the dog digs of August, investors typically go on vacation and lose interest in the

day-to-day news flow and trading activity.

Ironically, this can lead to more volatility and therefore trading opportunities.

However, these opportunities are very difficult to capture with leadership changing frequently,

almost hourly.

Activity typically dries up too, making it even more difficult for larger players to execute,

hence the bigger swings in price.

Last week, financial market participants were highly focused on one particular event that

could impact financial markets for the next several months, the July Labor Report on Friday.

This report is an important input to the Fed's timing for the removal of monetary accommodation.

Meanwhile, it's getting difficult to argue we still need emergency monetary policy at

a time when the U.S. economy is growing close to 10% on a year-ever-year basis.

In its defense, the Fed has argued at once evidence of substantial further progress in

the recovery, and they've explicitly cited full employment before it begins the process

of tightening.

Well, Friday's Labor Report did not disappoint those looking for a substantial further progress.

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