Stocks Closed Higher Yesterday, More Earnings Today, Employment Report Tomorrow

Market Moves You Need to See Stocks Closed Higher Yesterday, More Earnings Today, Employment Report Tomorrow [Kevin Matras - EVP - Photo] Profit from the Pros By Kevin Matras Executive Vice President Stocks Closed Higher Yesterday, More Earnings Today, Employment Report Tomorrow [Stocks Closed Higher Yesterday, More Earnings Today, Employment Report Tomorrow]Image: Shutterstock Stocks closed higher yesterday. The Nasdaq led the big three indexes with a gain of 0.58%. But the small-cap Russell 2000, and the mid-cap S&P 400 were the market leaders with gains of 0.70% and 0.65% respectively. Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Semiannual Monetary Policy testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee yesterday, pretty much said what we already knew: they are not ready to cut rates just yet; they are looking for greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%; but they are still expecting to cut rates later this year, saying he needs to "see a little bit more data," before they do. The market interpreted that bullishly, as it should, since rates are still expected to be coming down. It was also not lost on the market that the underlying economy is still quite strong. Mr. Powell will give his testimony again today before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Tuesday evening's better than expected earnings from CrowdStrike sent shares up more than 10% yesterday. And better than expected earnings yesterday morning contributed to the bullish sentiment when JD.com reported a positive EPS surprise of 15.4%, which sent shares soaring by more than 16%. After the close yesterday, Audioeye reported a positive EPS surprise of 266%, although a negative sales surprise of -0.51%. But that translated to a 1.68% positive quarterly sales growth rate, while their 11 cents in adjusted earnings beat the -17 cents from last year at this time. Shares were up 2.82% in the regular session before earnings, and jumped more than 12% in after-hours trade. Today we'll get another 203 companies set to report with Kroger, Burlington Stores, and BJ's Wholesale Club going before the open, while Broadcom, Costco, and Marvell Technology post after the close. In other news yesterday, MBA Mortgage Applications were up 9.7% w/w with purchases up 10.6%, and refi's up 8.1%. Wholesale Inventories slipped -0.3% m/m vs. last month's 0.4% and views for -0.1%. The Beige Book report showed the economy sped up in the beginning of the year, while inflation moderated. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (or JOLTS for short), showed job openings down a tad, but still at a strong 8.863 million vs. last month's 8.889M and the consensus for 8.9M. And the ADP Employment Report showed private payrolls at 140,000, which was above last month's upwardly revised 111K (from 107K), but just under estimates for 150K. We'll get more jobs data today with the Challenger Job-Cut Report, and Weekly Jobless Claims. But the jobs report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's always important Employment Situation report. At the moment, the consensus is estimating 190,000 new jobs were created last month (150K in the private sector and 40K in the public), while the unemployment rate stays the same at 3.7%. The big three indexes continue to trade near their all-time highs. And it won't take much to breakout to even higher highs. 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