Jobs Report Preview (Two Sided Risks)

What’s in Today’s Report:

  • Jobs Report Preview:  Two Sided Risks
  • EIA Analysis and Oil Update
  • Why Yesterday’s Service PMI was a Negative for Markets

Futures are little changed following a mostly quiet night of news as markets digest this week’s underwhelming economic data ahead of the jobs report and long weekend.

Economic data overnight was better than expected as the Chinese Composite PMI beat estimates (57.8 vs. (E) 55.0) as did German Industrial Production (2.0% vs. (E) 0.0%).

Regional banks remained stable overnight following WAL’s update on deposit statistics yesterday.

Today focus will be on Jobless Claims (E: 201K) and a speech by Fed president Bullard (10:00 a.m. ET).  Investors will want to see claims move higher, above 200k, to signal some moderation in the labor market, while we can expect Bullard to be hawkish, although keep in mind he does not represent the consensus at the FOMC (and as such his comments shouldn’t move markets, unless they’re a dovish surprise).