It was the most important session of the month, and in many ways, the most important session for President Trump.  No matter how great things might get from here, there is only one chance to make a first impression.  The stock market is reacting to the one-two punch of positive sentiment and evidence that it’s materializing into positive gains.  

But the stars of this session were the financials, which rocked big time on the Executive Order calling for the review and ultimate dismantling and repair of the Dodd Frank legislation.

We began Friday with the jobs report that blew away Wall Street consensus as 227,000 net new jobs were reported and hundreds of thousands slid off the "not in labor force" side of the ledger with renewed hope.

That same CEO gathering saw President Trump talk of taxes, and Obamacare, and that added some oomph to the rally, but so did the factory report that came out at the same time. 

Factories Beginning to Hum

The headline number for factory orders beat Wall Street consensus, but the details were even more encouraging.  Headline factory orders climbed +1.3% for the month after plunging 2.3% in November; the street was looking for +1.0%.

Striping out transportation, the number rocketed to a 2.1% gain as shipments were at the highest level since December 2010. In addition, business investment increased again; this time +0.7%.

Driving it all was shipments popping 2.2%, the highest since December 2010.

Today’s Session

Stocks are going to open under slight pressure, but near all-time highs for most equity indices.  I would like to point out for all the fretting about the market stalling, and the rally being over, the S&P 500 has traded less than 1% in any given session for 34 days in a row, matching the all-time record (1995).

Hasbro (HAS) is the stock of the morning after posting strong earnings driven by the “girls” division where sales jumped 52% paced by Disney Princess and Disney Frozen as well as Baby Alive and The easy Bake Oven still rocking,

The market might do some rubbernecking to the world of politics and the courts after President Trump saw his immigration order blocked and 97 companies (mostly technology) joined the fight filling an amicus.