Monday's Market Minute: Jobs Report on the Horizon

The focus this week will be squarely on the monthly jobs report due out on Friday. After three weeks of disappointing weekly job reports, the larger and more closely watched-monthly number will provide investors and traders insight in terms of where labor conditions in the U.S. stand, with over 10 million jobs open yet employers struggling to find workers to fill positions.

Wages on the rise have fed into the inflation concerns investors and traders have expressed recently; this will bring heightened attention to the wages component of the report. Before the jobs data later in the week, we also have a handful of Fed speakers (Rosengren, Bostic, and Bullard to name a few), the ISM Services data due out Tuesday along with the PMI Composite Final, and EIA inventories will be watched with energies prices on the rise. In terms of earnings, PepsiCo PEP, Levi’s LEVI, Tilray TLRY, Lamb Weston LW, and Conagra CAG are all set to report before things heat up in the coming weeks as we get earnings into full gear. As far as markets, keep an eye on energies, rates, and the indices.

With the WTI Crude to July highs and the Brent to multi-year highs and OPEC+ expected to not increase production more than expected, the focus is on the demand side. Heating Oil and Natural Gas products have risen sharply in the last month or so, adding to inflation concerns. And while the recent spike in rates slowed the move up in the U.S. indices, many feel conditions supportive of the trend up still remain even with the Fed looking to taper in the coming months.

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