Stocks are neither moving ahead to follow up on yesterday’s big gains. Nor selling off under the wave of profit taking.
Given the news calendar on Thursday and Friday that’s about what I’d expect. We’re due for a bushel of potentially market-moving news on those two days. And I’d be surprised if anyone wants to get too far ahead of those announcements.
Thursday brings an OPEC meeting that has already frozen oil prices on the odds that oil exporters will decide to ease their curbs on production in April and beyond. Thursday also sees the week’s report on initial claims for unemployment–will they show an improvement in the labor market that might produce another bout of selling in the Treasury market (with higher yields that would again hit stock prices.) That day also brings reports on factory orders and durable goods that will also suggest whether the economy is picking up steam or not and at what pace.
On Friday morning the government announces the employment report for February. Economists expect that the report will show the economy creating more jobs in February than in January and December. An improvement over the weak numbers for those two months would be welcome. But too much improvement could set the bond market worrying again about inflation and timing of the Federal Reserve’s move to raise interest rates.
See why nobody is rushing to buy or sell before all that news.
As of 3 p.m. New York time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was off 0.08% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had picked up 0.15%. The NASDAQ Composite had dropped 0.78%–not much considering it gained 3.01% yesterday–and the NASDAQ 100 ws down 0.83%.
The small cap Russell 2000, up 3.37% yesterday, lost 1.11% today.
