The jobs report came out this morning and may have disappointed a few people. And oil prices continue to drop, although that should be a boon to consumers, but market analysts continue to tell us the market is weak because oil prices are low. That doesn't make any sense to me. When oil was below $10 in the nineties, no one noticed, unless you worked for an oil company. In any case, SPX lopped off $17 to close at $2045. RUT also lost ground, closing down $10 at $1186. Volatility rose a bit with the VIX gaining a half point to close the session at 17.6%. That was a small increase in the VIX for a $17 drop in SPX. It doesn't seem as though the big boys are too concerned.

Trading volume dropped off with 1.9 billion shares of the S&P 500 trading. Volume on the NYSE decreased 7% and trading decreased 18% on NASDAQ. Did everyone took a long weekend?

The jobs report came in at +252 thousand, down significantly from last month's +353 thousand. The unemployment rate dropped again to 5.6%, but that number is basically useless due to the calculation protocols now being used. Most of you rememmber times when we had 5% unemployment; look around. This isn't that kind of booming economy. Many of my acquaintances remain unemployed; empty store fronts are on every block.

Another round of earnings announcements begin next week with Alcoa on Monday. Maybe traders are waiting on the sidelines until they see some of those numbers.

Have great weekend. And if you live around Chicago, try to stay warm. I was shoveling snow this morning and it was cold!