Take U.S. Off List of Investor Worries; Stock Market Has Plenty of Potential Pitfalls, but the Domestic Economy Probably Isn't One
For the past week, investors have probably been worrying about the wrong things.</br></br>Amid disappointing reports on U.S. manufacturing, consumer confidence and home prices, traders knocked the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.8% in the week's first four days. Fears spread that the U.S. economy was slowing down again. Then came Friday's upbeat jobs report and they pushed the Dow up 208.64 points, or 1.24%, to 17009.69, the second-biggest one-day point and percentage gain of 2014.</br></br>With stock prices high, there are plenty of problems that could interfere with further gains. Those include Federal Reserve interest-rate increases due next year, uncertainty about future corporate earnings gains, soft economic growth in Europe and China, and tensions with Russia.</br></br>But U.S. growth probably shouldn't be on that list.</br></br>"There seems to be this lingering doubt" about whether the U.S. economy is really recovering, said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management, which oversees $130 billion. "They are probably worrying about the wrong thing."