U.S. stocks rallied for the third consecutive session on Thursday, with investors panic buying ahead of Friday’s big non-farm payrolls report. Nevermind that the U.S.-China trade tensions aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, with China’s newspapers bragging that Beijing has already won (something President Trump won’t appreciate).
Or that Trump’s tirade against Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) continued with comments that it’s not using a level playing field and that his administration is studying the issue and looking at possible changes.
Multiple times over the past week, un-sourced “comments” from the White House have walked back Trump’s Amazon bluster. Just as the trade fears were walked back by Trump’s economic advisors yesterday. But Trump is determined to be Trump. And these issues are far from resolved.
The futures market points to a rough start with the S&P 500 down 0.7%, Nasdaq Composite down 0.83% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.81%.
Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) outperformed yesterday, however, rising 2.7% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he didn’t think the #deletefacebook movement has had much of an impact.
Chipmakers lagged after Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell 2.2% following cautious commentary from noted short-side research outfit Citron.
Healthcare stocks were the weakest performers, with Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) down 2.7% after being downgraded by analysts at Barclays.
To say today will be a big day is an understatement, with all eyes on the jobs report. Analysts are looking for payrolls to gain 175,000 and the unemployment rate to fall to 4.0%. Keep an eye on wage growth, with average hourly wages expected to expand by 2.7% from last year (up from 2.6% in the prior month). Further evidence of labor market tightening and wage-push inflation will re-raise concerns that the Fed will need to quicken its rate hike pace.
If that wasn’t enough for traders to contend with, Fed chairman Jerome Powell will be speaking this afternoon as well.
The recent market volatility isn’t going anywhere.
Check out Serge Berger’s Trade of the Day for April 6.
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Today’s Trading Landscape
To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here.
For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here.
Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge (ETFs) and Edge Pro (Options) investment advisory newsletters. Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers.
