The Market On Friday

Good morning and welcome to the weekend. It is 20 degrees and expected to be partly cloudy here in Upstate NY. Big day today, our new dog is going in to be spayed. Its a routine operation which hopefully will go smoothly and yes we are concerned. She will need a few days to rehab and so no stairs, less walking, and more chilling out to recuperate. Wish us luck.

At 7:00 a.m. futures are slightly higher, the dollar is mostly down against major world currencies, and the price of oil per barrel is higher. The market is poised to open slightly higher except...

The government's all important monthly report on jobs in the month of January will come out at around 8:30 a.m. The report is expected to show a drop off from the month of December and also that the 'official' unemployment rate is up. If the report is better than expected the market might rise, and if its worse than expected then investors will have the weekend to parse through the details to find any remnant of a silver lining. We haven't seen a severe drop in the market in recent weeks, could today be the day with a miserable number? Who knows...

CNN: Stocks: Investors await key jobs report

The government's jobs data for the month of January is due out an hour before the opening bell.


...the unwinding of seasonal hires in January, after about 40,000 temporary couriers were hired for the holidays alone.