The holiday-shortened week saw tech stocks back in favor after a first quarter where cyclical and value plays led the market. The Nasdaq, which trailed the major averages in Q1, gained 2.6% for the week, topping the S&P’s gain of 1.4% and the Dow, up 0.2%.  Stocks are off to a solid start this year, but the performance of the major indexes has been decidedly uneven.  For example, the Dow is up 8.3%, the S&P is up 7.0%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is only up 3.4%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 is up 14.1%.

Nonfarm payrolls exceeded Wall Street estimates, rising a whopping 916K in March, the Labor Department reports, compared with economist forecasts for a rise of around 650K.  The jobless rate dipped to 6% from 6.2%, in line with forecasts. The report is welcome news to those on Wall Street hoping for economic data to start to show concrete results of a strong recovery after the success of the recovery trade in Q1.  It's the biggest number of jobs created since August 2020. Revisions to the previous two months also added 156K jobs.  Private sector jobs rose by 780K vs. expectations of 643K. Leisure and hospitality added 280K jobs, with 176K coming from food services and drinking places.  Wage inflation still looks a long way off. The average hourly work week rose 0.3 to 34.9 hours, suggesting employers are still cautious about jumping into hiring with both feet.

President Biden unveiled his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan which would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. The plan would put $621 billion into improving and building roads and electrical vehicle development, $400 billion for elderly care, $300 billion into improving drinking-water infrastructure and broadband access, $300 billion into building affordable housing and upgrading schools, and $580 billion into American manufacturing, research and development and job training efforts.