March 9, 2023

Markets:

U.S. stock futures dipped Thursday as traders continue to process comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and await key employment data.

Those moves come a day after Powell reiterated his warning message to lawmakers that the central bank may raise interest rates higher than previously anticipated. However, he emphasized that no decision has been made yet regarding the March meeting.

Investors will get more indication on the state of the economy Friday, when the U.S. government releases its monthly jobs report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy to have added 225,000 jobs in February.

On Wednesday, ADP reported that private payrolls increased by 242,000, more than expected. This reaffirmed the strength of the economy, which raised concern that rates could stay higher for longer.

Investors on Thursday will be looking at the jobless claims report, which is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr is also scheduled to speak on cryptocurrencies.

The pan-European Stoxx index was down 0.2% in early trade with most sectors and major bourses trading in negative territory.

Portfolio:

We enter the new trading session holding set-ups in DAKT & CENX.  Very nice day for us yesterday.  Friendly reminder to not chase day to day moves but to trade the overall trend / flow / money. Momentum has been a key indicator in 2023 and continued to feed the pipeline well with new trade set-ups. The day to day chasing with the roller coaster type of swings has hurt traders and thus why we will continue to remind everyone that the only thing that matters is where we are technically and until the s&p breaks below and holds 3890, then the trend remains. Just keep that in mind and allow the market to materialize with price activity. March is off to a nice start for us, let's continue to build and position ourselves for the coming weeks. Let's have a great session.