Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Another one
Stocks notched a strong day ahead of Friday's jobs report. The S&P 500 notched a record close on Thursday, while the Nasdaq Composite hit a fresh high during the session. February jobs numbers, and what they mean for monetary policy, will be the market catalyst on Friday. A strong earnings season has helped to buoy stocks. Entering the week, the vast majority of the S&P 500 had reported fourth-quarter results, and earnings had jumped 9.8% from last year and come in 6.2% above expectations. Follow live market updates here.
2. Steady job market
Investors are watching whether the U.S. kept up a solid stretch of job growth in February. The number has major implications not only for the health of economy, but also when the Federal Reserve will start to cut interest rates. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect the U.S. added 198,000 jobs in February. That would be a drop from growth of 353,000 in January — a strong number that helped to lower expectations the Fed would ease monetary policy this year. While layoffs in February rose to their highest level since the financial crisis, other data suggest people are not staying out of work long. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden called the U.S. economy the "envy of the world" during his State of the Union address Thursday night, as he made the case that his policies are working.
3. Patient Powell
The Fed has not moved to cut interest rates as quickly as investors wanted. Even so, the day may be coming soon, the central bank's Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday. He told a Senate committee that the Fed is "not far" from being able to ease policy. Powell said the Fed wants to be more confident inflation is "moving sustainably" at its target of 2%. While price increases have eased in recent months, the consumer price index rose by a higher-than-expected 3.1% year over year in January.
4. Novo leapfrogs Tesla
Novo Nordisk is continuing its climb to establish itself among the most valuable companies in the world. The Danish drugmaker's stock hit a record on Thursday after the release of promising data on an experimental weight loss pill. With the jump, its market cap surpassed $600 billion, and it topped Tesla as the 12th most valuable company in the world. The boom in demand for its weight loss and diabetes drugs may only continue in the years ahead. And at least one U.S. insurer — Cigna — is working to make the treatments easier to access.
5. Speed grocers
Major grocers are racing each other to get orders to customers' doors. Walmart, Target and Kroger are all emphasizing fast home grocery delivery as part of new or existing subscription services. In an increasingly competitive grocery market, the major retailers are all trying to win shoppers with convenience and spur more frequent orders. Walmart is the largest U.S. grocer by market share, and Kroger is second. Target, in ninth place, sees its new paid membership option as once way to drive more sales in the space.
– CNBC's Pia Singh, Robert Hum, Jeff Cox, Karen Gilchrist, Annika Kim Constantino and Melissa Repko contributed to this report.
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