The market continues to grapple with the meaning of Friday's jobs report, which was really much like Dickens' novel: The best of times and worst of times.
288,000 jobs created are huge in the context of the current recovery, but 806,000 leaving is an even bigger headline. Hourly earnings didn't budge, and that's alarming, even if it does buy the Fed more time to keep rates low. The fact is that the economy struggles against headwinds out of its control. Those pressures are two-prong:
* Fiscal policy designed to harm success
* The Dropout Nation where more and more Americans toss in the towel
The week after the jobs report is released is typically a dud as most big earnings are out and key economic data has to wait another four weeks. The bias will be to the downside, although there's no sense of panic. On that note, the high-flying tech names will have to make yet another stance and there's no doubt that the issues in Ukraine are becoming harder to ignore.
