Investors and stocks got a reminder today that we are not quite out of the woods yet. U.S. employers added only 18,000 jobs in June, well below the 90,000 payrolls the street was expecting and the unemployment rate also climbed to 9.2%. Stocks ended lower across the board with the Dow (chart), Nasdaq (chart), S&P 500 (chart) and the Russell 2000 (chart) all finishing down, although rebounding noticeably off their intraday lows. I think the late-day bounce is due to the anticipation of earnings reporting season which kicks off in earnest next week.

Aluminum producer Alcoa (NYSE: AA) reports their quarterly results on Monday and should  provide a snapshot regarding the overall health of the global economy, followed by JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG) later in the week. These companies should set the tone for the much anticipated second quarter earnings reporting season, which I also expect to be quite volatile. Good luck to all.

Have a great weekend 🙂

~George