Three reasons why stocks rose despite weak jobs

With Wall Street on edge, stocks acting unstable recently, and economic fears rising, you'd think stocks would tumble on the day the government said, for the second straight month, that the economy created fewer jobs than investors expected.

Instead, the Dow Jones industrials soared 166 points, or 1.1% to 15,794.08, ending a week that started with a 326-point drop in the black.

So how do you explain the market's ability to shrug off news that only 113,000 jobs were created in January, far fewer than the 180,000 expected?

1. Read the fine print. The headline number of 113,000 jobs was a miss, but investors opted to focus on the report's fine print, where they found enough positives to conclude that the job market isn't in such horrible shape, says Joe Deaux, economics analyst at The Street.

Deaux notes that the private sector created 142,000 jobs, the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.6% and the number of Americans in the workforce also rose. "There was some solace in that," says Deaux.

2. Read the weather report. Wall Street gave the jobs report a pass this time because of disruptions related to weather, adds Deaux.

3. Read between the lines. Despite the market drop, "nothing has changed in terms of fundamentals," says Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones. She views the recent market weakness as a buying opportunity.