This afternoon, the Dow and Nasdaq ended the week up 1.68% and 1.97%, respectively, marking their eighth consecutive week of gains. The S&P ended the week up 2.10%, but was down last week.

The jobs report released Thursday pointed toward continued recovery.  Initial claims were down 24,000, but the markets expected to see claims down 25,000. The news therefore did not make for any great gains in the markets, but was a welcome continuation of a trend nonetheless.

Corporate earnings have been better than expected this week, but the phenomenon of “whisper numbers,” a buzzword in the late ‘90s, has prevented big gains in reporting stocks.

Next week is a very important one for economic data. We’ll see consumer confidence, the FOMC policy meeting, and the GDP figure for the first quarter. The GDP is expected to have grown at a 3.3% annualized rate.