April's jobs report could actually bring in more May buyers.
The report is expected to be fairly gloomy, forecast to show a loss of 75,000 non-farm payrolls or more last month. But Thursday's frisky market action could carry through if the report does not show up worse than expected. It sounds odd, but the bad news is already what's expected.
After an initially wishy washy reaction Wednesday, the stock market Thursday embraced the Fed's actions and rallied to closing levels not seen since early January.
The big trade of the day was the reversal of the weak dollar, strong commodities trade which pushed the dollar higher and took the wind out of a wide range of commodities. Oil was one of those, losing 0.8 percent to $112.52. Gold lost 1.6 percent to $848.90 per troy ounce. Copper plunged 5.3 percent to $3.7255 per pound and silver lost 2.3 percent to $16.1210 per troy ounce.
Stocks followed the same pattern - energy and materials were lower and transports higher. Energy stocks were up 2.2 percent, and airlines were up more than 5.6 percent.
The dollar gained a full percent against the euro Thursday and 0.34 against the yen. The Dow meanwhile finished up 189, at 13,010, its first close above 13,000 since Jan. 3 and the S&P closed up 24 at 1409, the first close above the magic 1400 level since Jan. 14.
"I think it's going to be a continued unwind" in commodities, said John O'Donoghue, head of equities at Cowen. "I don't think it's going to be a massive crash. it's an unwind. I think there's a long-term bull market in commodities. I think it just got ahead of itself."
Econorama
In addition to the 8:30 a.m. jobs report, factory orders for March are reported at 10 a.m. Some important earnings news is expected from oil major Chevron. Also reporting are Viacom, Duke Energy, Agrium, and Weyerhaeuser.