Stocks Up Again, Poised For Another Up Day After Strong Earnings  Image: Bigstock Stocks closed higher again yesterday as the rebound continues. From their correction lows last week, the Dow is up 6.80%, the S&P is up 7.67%, and the Nasdaq is up 9.56%. And based on some big earnings yesterday, especially Google's parent company Alphabet, which posted a 15.0% positive EPS surprise, and a 4.35% positive sales surprise after the close, not to mention their announcement of a 20-for-1 stock split (they were up 8% in after-hours trade), it looks like we could be in for another fantastic day again today. In other news, the Redbook report showed same store retail sales up 15.8% y/y vs. last week's pace of 15.6%. The PMI Manufacturing report came in better than expected at 55.5 vs. the consensus for 55.0. The ISM Manufacturing Index also beat expectations with a print of 57.6 vs. views for 57.5. Construction Spending rose 0.2% m/m, a bit less than the consensus for 0.7%. But last month's tally was revised up from 0.4% to 0.6%. And on a y/y basis, it's up 9.0%. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (or JOLTS for short) showed 10.925 million jobs available. That's more than the consensus for 10.500M, and more than last month's upwardly revised 10.775M. It's a tight jobs market out there with more jobs available than unemployed people to fill them. But the jobs report that everybody is really waiting for is Friday's Employment Situation report. The consensus is calling for 200,000 new jobs created (208K in the private sector and -8K in the public), with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.9%, while the participation rate dips to 61.8%. Interestingly, the White House yesterday suggested we could see a weaker than expected jobs report, saying that the Omicron spike in January may weigh on the numbers. We will soon find out. But as you can imagine, that makes the upcoming report even more anticipated. But before that, we've still got plenty of other reports to get through, starting with today's MBA Mortgage Applications report, the Motor Vehicle Sales report, and the ADP Employment Report. We'll also hear from OPEC today, and if they made any changes in their oil production quotas. And, of course, earnings season continues with another 160 companies on deck to report today, and another 250 tomorrow. In the meantime, stocks have been on a tear after rebounding from last week's correction lows. And it looks like there's a lot more upside to go. So make sure you're taking full advantage of it. See you tomorrow,  Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research | 
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