Jobs Report Preview (Why It’s Still A Very Important Report)
What’s in Today’s Report:
- Jobs Report Preview (Why It’s Still A Very Important Report)
- Oil Update and EIA Analysis
Futures are solidly positive as markets bounce from Wednesday’s sell-off following a quiet night of news.
There are no definitive results yet, but the chatter on Omicron is that vaccines do still provide protection from severe illness, and that is slightly easing anxiety about the variant.
Economic data was sparse but showed continued inflation pressures as Euro Zone PPI rose 5.4% vs. (E) 3.2%.
Today the key report is Jobless Claims (E: 245K) and we expect a solid bounce back from last week’s very low numbers, but clearly, trends in the labor market continue to improve. We also get numerous Fed speakers including: Bostic (8:30 & 11:30 a.m. ET), Quarles (11:00 a.m. ET), Daly (11:30 a.m. ET), and Barkin (11:30 a.m. ET).
Bottom line, the market is dealing with three separate headwinds (ranked in order of importance): Omicron uncertainty, Fed tapering acceleration, and Washington dysfunction (possible shutdown). Positive headlines on any of them will help stocks bounce, while further negative headlines (like yesterday with a possible government shutdown) will cause another decline.
