The disappointing March employment report, released when the market was closed Friday, adds fuel to that debate, and could send stocks lower on Monday’s opening bell. But in a perverse twist of market logic, the number may be seen as a positive for stocks if investors believe it will result in a new round of Fed easing.The economy added just 120,000 nonfarm payrolls in March, well below the 203,000 expected by economists. Bonds rallied, and yields moved lower. Stock index futures, open briefly Friday, fell sharply.“Any kind of number like that will do it,” said Wells Capital investment strategist James Paulsen. “But we’ll see what investors do. I think there’s a lot of people that missed out and they don’t want to miss out further, and on any pullback they’ll be buying. Even with this one report, there’s a lot more good things going on in this recovery than they’re used to be.”If the March report met expectations, it would have been the first four month streak of 200,000 plus jobs since 1999. “My point is it’s quite a feat to string a number of those together without a statistical fluke month. In other words, it would have been quite a big deal if we had gotten another 200,000-plus number,” Paulsen said.The sluggish job growth immediately set traders buzzing about the potential for more quantitative easing [cnbc explains] , during Friday’s holiday-shortened bond-market session. The Federal Reserve [cnbc explains] disappointed investors earlier in the week when March meeting minutes showed members had no resolve to carry out a new round of easing. Stocks and commodities sold off, and bond prices and the dollar moved higher.The equity market will have its first chance to react to Friday’s March jobs report Monday morning, when the markets reopen after the long Easter weekend.
