Stocks Closed Lower Yesterday Ahead Of This Morning's Employment Report

Plus 5 Just-Added Strong Buys Stocks Closed Lower Yesterday Ahead Of This Morning's Employment Report [Kevin Matras - EVP - Photo] Profit from the Pros By Kevin Matras Executive Vice President Stocks Closed Lower Yesterday Ahead Of This Morning's Employment Report [Stocks Closed Lower Yesterday Ahead Of This Morning's Employment Report]Image: Bigstock Stocks closed lower yesterday ahead of this morning's Employment Situation report. Even though Wednesday's Fed announcement, where they raised rates by a widely expected 25 basis points, inferred a likelihood of pausing, and where Jerome Powell said that "the U.S. banking system is sound and resilient," traders sold bank stocks, especially the smaller regional names. This all comes on the heels of Monday's announced purchase of First Republic Bank by JPMorgan Chase. JPM, at the request of the FDIC, paid $10.6 billion for most of FRC's assets. And JPM's CEO, Jamie Dimon, remarked after the deal that "this part of the crisis is over." But after yesterday's rout of PacWest (down more than -50%), and others like Western Alliance (-38%), Zions Bancorp (-12%), and Comerica (-12%), it doesn't feel that way. Mr. Powell's post-announcement press conference on Wednesday didn't help matters when he remarked that lax oversight by regulators were partly to blame for SVB's collapse, and noted that the speed of SVB's bank run was unprecedented. To quote Mr. Powell, he said, "the run on Silicon Valley Bank was out of keeping with the speed of runs through history. And now that needs to be reflected in some way in regulation and supervision." In other words, they were surprised this could have happened so fast. And they need to figure out how to deal with this new reality in the future. Not the most confidence inspiring words. But as traders look to see if there are any more banking dominos to fall, we could very well come to find out that there are no more. We shall see. But if these troubled banks can withstand the immense pressure they are under at present, that will be a good sign. In other news, Apple reported earnings after the close yesterday and posted a positive EPS surprise of 5.56%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.62%, while also announcing a 4% increase in their quarterly dividend (from 23 cents to 24 cents). Apple was up more than 2.00% in after-hours trade. Earnings season continues today with another 164 companies on deck. (That number balloons to 1,927 for all of next week.) But the main event today is this morning's Employment Situation report. The consensus is calling for 178,000 new jobs to have been created in April (153K in the private sector and 25K in the public), with the unemployment rate expected to tick up from 3.5% to 3.6%. Interestingly, Mr. Powell, in Wednesday's press conference, seemed to marvel at the robust labor market, commenting with seeming incredulity that rates have risen to 5% while the unemployment rate is still only 3.5%. If Wednesday's ADP Employment Report (which reported 296,000 new private payroll jobs vs. the consensus for 143,000), is any indication of what today's jobs report will be, we could see another strong report. All eyes will be on this morning's jobs report. That comes out at 8:30 AM ET. Should be another busy day to cap off another busy week. Best, [Kevin Matras - Signature] Kevin Matras Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research [5 Stocks Set to Double: Sunday Deadline]( There's still time to get in on our just-released 5 Stocks Set to Double Special Report. 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