At 8:30 a.m. Eastern this morning (about two hours from now), the government will likely report another horrendous jobs report, with analysts expecting that 615,000 nonfarm jobs were lost in February and that unemployment reached a rate of 7.9%, according to Briefing.com.Somehow, some people are saying a bad jobs report could spark a rally. How so? Granted, lately the markets move oftentimes in utter disconnect of the news, and who knows, it's quite possible we'll see a rally following Thursday's selloff. But if anyone would be buying stocks because the jobs report shows the economy keeps getting worst, that would be quite amazing -- even for these crazy times.
Another argument is that if the jobs report is even worse than expected, then we'll finally see the dreaded, yet yearned for, capitulation with a 300-400 drop at the open. Again, perhaps there will be some panic selling, but if anyone hopes this would be a bottom, they'll likely be disappointed. As things stand now, many more bad news days are ahead of us, as well as many more down days. Hate to be so gloomy, but I'd be putting my head in the sand otherwise.
No doubt, the market will move on the non-farm payroll numbers, despite the reported apathy, but in what direction it's still too early to tell.
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