Market Eyes Friday Jobs Report

All eyes turn to the Non Farm Payrolls number this coming Friday. The market is looking for continued positive readings on job creation. Lately, the market has been perplexed by higher Jobless Claims, last week hitting 426,000. This number is a sharp jump from a month ago when Jobless Claims were in the mid 380,000 range. In addition, the GDP reported last week was nothing to write home about, coming in at 1.8%. For a market that is getting steroids from the Federal Reserve, it seems somewhat on the weak side. As the Federal Reserve continues their quantitative easing policy, and the Dollar dives day by day, is the economy stalling out already? Today, the markets are hovering slightly negative. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY is trading at $136.02, -0.20 (-0.15%). This shows overall weakness in the market as their is no catalyst for upside until the Non Farm Payroll number on Friday. The weakness is even more apparent when we look at the Dollar. The Dollar is down again which is no surprise, however, a weaker Dollar usually pushes the markets higher. Today the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish UUP is trading at $20.90, -0.07 (-0.33%). Energy stocks like Chevron Corporation CVX are leading the markets lower while financial companies like JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM are fighting back, trying to keep things neutral. Gareth Soloway InTheMoneyStocks.com