Investors looking for any reason to buy stocks are hoping to find one Friday when the government releases its monthly jobs report.
While a reliable rally killer for much of 2012, the release of the nonfarm payrolls data has proved positive for the market this year, with the Standard & Poor's 500 picking up 7 points on both the January and February release dates.
With indications that the report on February's trends could be better than initial expectations, that likely would provide the stock market another upside catalyst.
(Read More: Jobs Market Gets Better; Trade Deficit Gets Worse)
"We're certainly in an environment where good news is great and bad news is just OK," said Art Hogan, managing director and head of product strategy at Lazard Capital Markets. "The market has just found the path of least resistance to the upside in the near term and it's hard to find something to knock it off there."
Economists surveyed by Reuters are expecting the Bureau of Labor Statistics to report the economy created 160,000 jobs and the unemployment rate steadied at 7.9 percent.
However, a report from ADP and Moody's Analytics on Wednesday that showed private payrolls increased by 198,000 for the month has caused some in the market to raise their forecasts.
The unexpected high number "capped a string of decent employment data, including jobless claims, jobs plentiful and the ISM employment subcomponents, which indicated that hiring momentum held up last month," said Joe LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank.
(Read More: Private Jobs Continue to Show Signs of Growth)