Stocks are Up, everyone Jump In

Picking up the pieces from Hurricane Sandy the U.S. markets are now in day two of operation after taking two days off.  Stocks are raging with the S&P 500 moving up 1%, the Dow Jones up 1.25% and the Nasdaq up 1.4%.

Today's increase is thanks to more jobs in the states, consumer confidence improving, and favorable ISM data.  Today ADP said U.S. businesses added 158,000 jobs in October 2012.  The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits dropped 9,000 to 363,000 last week.  The market is taking that as a sign and money rich corporations are finally starting to hire again.

The latest consumer confidence reading for October came in at 72.2 while economists polled by Briefing.com expected a reading of 72.0. This follows prior month's 70.3 print.

October ISM Index came in better-than-expected at 51.7 versus the 51.0 Briefing.com consensus, and up from September's reading of 51.5. Meanwhile, September construction spending rose by 0.6% month-over-month, against the expected increase.

Enjoy the rally today Masters.  Here's a look at the major indexes: