Flat Finish for Wall Street

"The stock market has been fairly volatile, as it appears investors are divided between an optimistic growth forecast and a pessimistic one," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist with Spencer Clarke LLC. "Today's jobs report is a perfect example of where you can see a positive and as well as a negative. That gave us this very choppy trading."

Meanwhile, in what is becoming common, job growth for the prior two months was revised upward. The government now says 55,000 more employees were put to work in December and January than had been first thought.

"We were expecting far more weakness," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment officer with Windham Financial. "To come in on target and have upward revisions to previous months, it shows that the 'Goldilocks' scenario is still in place. This takes a lot of the fear out of the market."

Fixed-income traders sent yields soaring, as the report showed a stronger economy than previously thought. The 10-year note fell 19/32 in price, yielding 4.59%, and the 30-year bond sank 1 2/32 to yield 4.72%.

"Bond yields had been coming down on anticipation we were headed for an economic slowdown," added Mendelsohn. "Today's reading shows, from an employment point of view, that the economy is still strong and on track. It should be expected that bond yields would rise."