I wouldn’t say that bad market news makes me instinctively feel bullish, but there are always winners and losers, and it’s great if the things that vex me in my personal life can benefit me in my professional one. I’m grateful for a milder winter here in the mid-Atlantic region as I didn’t have to pay as much for oil, but gas prices haven’t stopped their steep upward climb. Bad for my car’s gas tank, good for my stock portfolio. Devon Energy (DVN) is one of the many oil and gas companies that can still perform well when we’re getting not-so-pleasant news. Case in point: the March jobless reports from Gallup.

Odds are you have heard (or will soon read) that these findings showed initially a decrease in unemployment rates, but disappointingly less than expectations. Analysts and non-experts alike see this as a bad sign for the market. It is also well-known that some of the unemployed just gave up looking for work when employment benefits ran out, or were never able to find sufficient full-time work when working for themselves instead of an outside employer. I fall into that second category; caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s and needing to work independently, I didn’t make it into the statistics that are being reported for 2012.Anyone who plays the market knows that statistics shouldn’t be accepted only at face value, and many suspect unemployment is even worse than reported. To continue reading, click here.