“The labor market continues to improve as the pace of firings recede again,” Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in an email.

“If this trend continues, one would have to believe, given previous relationships, that the monthly employment report will begin printing 200,000 plus job additions on a regular basis,” noted Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC.

Stock-index futures had pointed to a lower start for Wall Street after Moody’s Investors Service threatened to downgrade global banks, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and the fate of a second Greek bailout remained unclear.

But the index futures scaled back on their decline after data that had the government reporting initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000 last week, the lowest since March 2008.

Other reports had housing starts up 1.5% last month, while wholesale prices climbing 0.1% in January.

Currently the 20 ma is coming down which will act as resistance and try to push the stock lower again. However, I see BBG breaking above it and heading for the $30 price level again. There is also resistance between $28.50 and $28.70 which it may stall out at, but eventually should break through.

I’m looking at the March 30x calls on BBG as the best strike. It has the most volume and the best spread. Plus with February’s expiring next week we’ll have some extra time on our hands. The options aren’t that liquid on this stock, but as long as there’s a good spread then it shouldn’t be a problem. The March 30x calls closed today at .60 (.60 x .70). Assuming we don’t see a gap up tomorrow I will try to grab some calls around .60 as well and will tweet about if and when I do @optionrunners.

Here’s the chart for BBG via Finviz:

The increase in hiring was the biggest since last April and supplies further evidence that the economy continues to strengthen after a slowdown last summer. The U.S. has added an average of 183,000 jobs a month in the past five months.

Hiring has also become more broad based. Jobs were added last month in manufacturing and construction, professional services, retail, health care and food and restaurant establishments.

Wall Street reacted positively, with stock futures advancing after the report was published.

As part of its report, the Labor Department also issued its annual “benchmark” changes to employment data over the past 21 months. The newly revised data show that the U.S. gained 1.82 million jobs in 2011, up from an initial estimate of 1.64 million.

In December, the increase in payrolls was revised up to 203,000 from an initial report of 200,000. And November payrolls were revised up to 157,000 from 100,000.

Although hiring has accelerated since the end of last summer, the U.S. still has a long way to go to recoup all the jobs lost during the 2007-2009 recession. As of last month, 12.76 million people were officially classified as unemployed, and 5.5 million have been without a job for more than six months. That was little changed from December.

Looked at another way, the unemployment rate is an even higher 15.1% if the data includes people with part-time positions who cannot find full-time jobs and those who have recently given up looking for work.

The U.S. would need to add about 250,000 jobs a month for several years to bring the unemployment rate back down to pre-recession levels. The jobless rate ranged from 3.8% to 6.2% in the seven years prior to the 2007-2009 recession.

Also Friday, the Labor Department said average hourly earnings rose by 4 cents, or 0.2%, to $23.29 in January. That was in line with expectations. The average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours.

Just something worth noting, there was unusually high call volume on the February 16x strikes today with over 1,100 contracts being traded. This is pretty high compared to any other strikes (calls or puts). Here’s the chart for SPRD:

Apple Inc. saw earnings more than double for its first fiscal quarter, reporting results on Tuesday afternoon that blew past Wall Street’s estimates, primarily from a huge jump in sales of the iPhone.

Shares of Apple jumped nearly 8% in after-hours trading immediately following the results. The period included the launch of the iPhone 4S, and Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said “tremendous popularity” of the 4S model led iPhone sales growth across all of the company’s segments during a conference call following the report.

“This is even better than expected,” said Mike Walkley of Canaccord. “It’s remarkable that the iPhone 4S with Sri created such a huge upgrade cycle.”

Brian Marshall of ISI Group called it a “phenomenal quarter all around,” noting that the main drivers were the iPhone and iPad, which he estimates as representing about 80% of the company’s gross profits.

“That’s where that tremendous EPS leverage comes from,” he said, noting that earnings surged by 118% next to a 73% gain in revenue.

Apple, which tends to be conservative in its outlook, issued a forecast for the current quarter that was ahead of Wall Street’s projections. Analysts say the period will likely be driven by continued momentum of the iPhone 4S, which just launched in China. Unclear is whether the forecast includes any potential sales of an updated iPad 3, which is expected to come on the market in the March-April time frame.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Apple reported net income of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per share, compared with net income of $6 billion or $6.43 per share for the same period the previous year.

Revenue jumped 73% to $46.3 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $10.08 per share on revenue of $38.85 billion for the quarter, according to consensus forecasts from Thomson Reuters.

Apple said it shipped 37.04 million iPhones for the quarter, far ahead of the average analysts’ forecast for just more than 30 million units sold. In a call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company made a “very bold bet” with its manufacturing targets for the iPhone 4S, but still came up short on supply amid heavy demand for the device.

“We thought we were betting, as many of you would have thought if you had known what we were doing,” he said. “But, as it turns out, we didn’t bet high enough.”

Shipments of the iPad totaled 15.43 million units; analysts were expecting about 13.8 million units. That more than doubled from 7.3 million iPads in the same period the previous year.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, dropped by a much smaller 3,500 to 379,000. The monthly average is viewed as more accurate because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data, which is especially pronounced in January after the end of the holiday season. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims decreased by 215,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.43 million in the week ended Jan. 7. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. About 7.83 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week ended Dec. 31, up 493,566 from the prior week. Total claims are reported with a two-week lag.

Excluding the 1.5% rise in motor vehicle sales, retail sales fell 0.2%. Economists had expected ex-auto sales to rise 0.3%. Core sales, excluding autos, gasoline and building materials, fell 0.2% in December after a 0.3% gain in November. This is the first drop in core sales since last December.

The Beige Book survey of business contacts in the Fed’s 12 districts said economic activity increased “at a modest to moderate pace.” This rate is an improvement from the mid-November report which said some districts were growing at a “slow” pace.

“Compared with prior summaries, the reports on balance suggest ongoing improvement in economic conditions in recent months, with most districts highlighting more favorable conditions than identified in reports from late spring through early fall,” the report said.

Compiled this time by the San Francisco Fed, the report is designed to give Fed officials a feel for conditions on the ground as they prepare for their next monthly policy meeting on January 24-25.

Fed officials will receive much more detailed reports before their policy meeting. But these reports are kept secret for years after the meeting.

The latest Fed report said holiday retail sales were up “noticeably” over last year. The auto sector was so vibrant that some suppliers reportedly were nearing capacity constraints.

The nonfinancial service sector, seen as key to the outlook by many economists, reported stronger demand.

Price pressures were described as “quite limited.” Wage pressures were also seen as modest given the low level of hiring.

“A year ago, virtually every contact talked about high commodity prices and, in some cases, shortages, but now the only comments relate to limited pricing pressure,” the Boston Fed reported in their summary of district conditions.

The report was based on information collected from late November through Dec. 30.

The Richmond Fed Bank district reported the weakest activity. One contact in the district, a retail executive in North Carolina, described retail sales as erratic. Customers in the district returned as much of a third of the items places on lay-away before finishing the payments because, shoppers said, they needed the money.

The survey found that tourism and leisure activity firms in many regions were suffering from the lack of snow.

Real estate activity was seen as steady at very low levels. The only good news were reports of further gains in apartment construction. One residential builder in the Philadelphia Fed district said the firm was glad to have 2011 behind them.

Bank lending activity was reported to have edged up, mostly due to business demand.