For weeks, there’ve been people saying stocks can’t go straight up forever. And today it looks like they’re right. The market actually has a softer tone this morning as caution kicks in ahead of tomorrow’s jobs report and the long weekend.

Crude is especially weak, diving more than 2% back toward $40 a barrel. Worries surfaced about U.S. demand possibly flagging, analysts said. U.S. fuel consumption has flattened, which isn’t great news from an economic perspective. Energy was the only sector in the S&P 500 that fell yesterday, and it’s down more than 40% so far this year.

Meanwhile, the “split brothers,” Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc, both fell in pre-market trading after losing ground yesterday. There might be some profit-taking going on after the amazing rallies these two have had. Nothing too surprising there. However, their pre-market losses are weighing heavily on the Nasdaq (COMP).

The early weakness drew a challenge from weekly initial jobless claims, which fell to a post-pandemic low of 881,000. That was well below analysts’ expectations for 950,000, and down from 1 million the prior week. While claims remain historically high, it’s always good to see fewer people needing to apply for jobless benefits, and major indices started to come back a little in pre-market trading after the data.

Claims data and early softness aside, the fundamental feeling most of this week has been positive. The buying mood is partly due to speculation about a coronavirus relief package, and also reflects optimism that a vaccine will become available this year….CLICK for complete article