April 1, 2022

Markets:

U.S. stock futures were firmly in the green Friday morning as investors looked ahead to a new month of trading and mulled fresh data out of Washington on the state of the labor market.

Investors on Friday are set to closely monitor the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, offering the most up-to-date snapshot of the strength in hiring across the U.S. economy. U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March. Consensus economists are looking for non-farm payrolls to rise by 490,000 for March, according to Bloomberg data, slowing from February's 678,000 gain but still marking an increase well above pre-pandemic trends. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, better than the expected 3.7% — the lowest since February 2020.

April has historically been a strong month for stocks, and has in fact produced a positive return for the S&P 500 in 15 of the last 16 years, according to LPL Financial's Ryan Detrick. This time, however, stocks are facing a variety of headwinds that may upend this historically positive seasonality.

Elsewhere on the companies front, meme-stock favorite GameStop revealed in a form 8-K filed with the SEC after the bell Thursday that the video-game retailer will seek approval for a stock split at its upcoming shareholder meeting. GME is following a growing list of major companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla — it what could be the “summer of stock splits.” Stock splits are a corporate action taken to improve trading liquidity and make shares more affordable without impacting market capitalization. GME rallied as much as 20% in extended trading to a 4-month high of more than $200 per share following the news.

Portfolio:

We enter the new trading session and first day of a new month and quarter holding positions in NU, ZI, and ITRM.  Super excited for the 2nd quarter and all the potential it brings.  The 1st quarter provided us many great set-ups but with the Fed now being digested and the war hopefully ending in Ukraine soon, we can be provided with strong movement in this market.  Next week, the first full trading week of the new quarter, should be super exciting.  Be ready today for new setups and further updates.  Let's have a great session.