Aone-two combination of an extremely strong jobs report coupled with statementsby Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell resulted in market sentiment taking a180° turn from extreme bearish sentiment to extreme bullish sentiment in regardto U.S. equities.

After experiencing over a 600-point drop in the DowJones Industrial Average yesterday, the Dow recovered briskly today as itgained 746 points and closed at 23,433.16.

Jerome Powell, in a panel discussion which was heldin combination with Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, said that the central bankwould be “patient” to see how the economy evolves given conflicting signalsfrom the market and economic data. His statements also suggested that themarkets are pricing in downside risk which is “well ahead of the data.”

These statements occurred in conjunction with anextremely strong and robust U.S. jobs report which indicated that 312,000 jobswere added last month. These numbers were far in excess of any estimates by theanalysts who were forecasting that 182,000 new jobs were added last month.

The jobs report clearly indicated that the economicenvironment was much stronger than anticipated and the likelihood that theUnited States is moving into a recession is greatly reducedbased on figures released by the Labor Department today.

Although the U.S. dollar was slightly weaker today,trading off by 0.12%, gold and silver prices suffered. Gold prices saw their largest decline in the last two weeks as a resultof strong numbers in the jobs report coupled with Chairman Powell statements.