Dow Jones Futures: Jobs Report Looms, Tesla Cuts U.S. EV Prices; U.S. Stock Market Closed

Dow Jones futures were about unchanged early Friday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The March jobs report looms while Tesla (TSLA) cut U.S. prices on all its electric vehicles. But U.S. markets are closed today.

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The major indexes held up well in a holiday-shortened trading week, with midweek pullbacks looking healthy and normal. But many sectors and leading stocks sold off hard, including Tesla stock

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) broke out Thursday. China e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) flashed an aggressive entry.

Google stock is on the IBD Long-Term Leaders, along with Microsoft (MSFT).

The video embedded in the article discussed the weekly market action and analyzed Google, BABA stock and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG).

Jobs Report

The Labor Department releases the March jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to rise 238,000, down from February’s 311,000 but still solid. The jobless rate should hold at 3.6%. Hourly earnings rose 0.3% vs. February with the annual gain cooling to 4.3%.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended April 1 came in at 228,000, far above views for 201,000. Claims for the prior week were revised up by 48,000 to 246,000, amid big seasonal adjustment revisions.

Job openings tumbled in February, but  remain relatively high. Private payroll growth slowed far more than expected, to 145,000 in March, ADP estimated.

Meanwhile, the March ISM manufacturing index signaled a deeper contraction while the ISM services index showed growth slowing rapidly.

Dow Jones Futures Today

Dow Jones futures fell 0.1% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

U.S. stock markets will be closed today in observance of Good Friday.

Dow Jones futures will only trade until 9:15 a.m. ET. Hong Kong and European markets are closed for Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.

Join IBD experts as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live

Stock Market Rally

The stock market rally had a mixed week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% in  weekly stock market trading. The S&P 500 index dipped 0.1%. The Nasdaq fell 1.1% and the Russell 2000 slumped 2.5%.

U.S. crude oil prices leapt 6.65% to $80.92 a barrel, mostly on Monday after the surprise OPEC+ production cut. Crude futures have surged 20.9% in three weeks.

The 10-year Treasury yield tumbled 22 basis points to 3.28%, hitting seven-month lows.

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Growth ETFs

Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) tumbled 3.5% for the week. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) fell 1.6%. Microsoft stock is a major holding . The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slumped 4.1%.

Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) skidded 4.4% and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) dropped 1.2%, though both rose Thursday. Tesla stock is the No. 1 holding across Ark Invest’s ETFs.

Tesla Price Cuts

Tesla cut U.S. prices on all its EVs overnight. It reduced Model S and X prices for the third time this year, both by $5,000 in this instance. The Model S starts at $84,990 while the Model X now begins at $94,990.

Meanwhile, Tesla trimmed U.S. Model 3 prices by $1,000 to an entry price of $41,990. The Model Y was cut $2,000 to $49,990.

Earlier in the week, Tesla cut Model 3 and Y prices in Australia once again.

Tesla slashed global prices in January, with further U.S. cuts on its S and X vehicles and additional European discounts in March. That, along with new U.S. EV credits, pushed first-quarter deliveries to a new record. But they fell short of FactSet views. Production exceeded deliveries once again, with Model S and X output nearly twice as high as sales.

Many analysts predicted further Tesla price cuts to support demand, further cutting its prized margins

Tesla Stock

Investors won’t get a chance to react to the latest Tesla price cut until Monday. But Tesla stock tumbled 10.8% to 185.06 for the past week following the Q1 delivery report. Shares plunged below a 200.76 cup-with-handle buy point and the 50-day moving average.

The base had formed below the 200-day line, which is not great. The 200.76 buy point is no longer valid, but TSLA stock is working on a new handle, already present on a weekly chart, with a 207.89 entry. Of course, the 200-day line is still slightly above that.

Tesla earnings for the first quarter are due April 19, when investors will see how price cuts have hit profit margins so far.

Google Stock

Google jumped 3.8% on Thursday to 108.42 in above-normal volume. Shares rallied past a cup-with-handle buy point of 106.69 according to MarketSmith analysis.

Google’s CEO said the company will add a chat AI to its search engine soon, after Microsoft (MSFT) added ChatGPT to its Bing search engine and other products.

Alibaba Stock

Alibaba stock popped 4.25% on Thursday to 102.74, breaking the downtrend of a handle, offering an early entry. The new handle is above the 50-day line but fractionally too low in the base to be considered proper.

BABA stock surged in the prior week after Alibaba said it would split into six different units with their own CEOs and the option of filing for IPOs.

Stock Market Rally Analysis

The stock market rally had a normal and healthy pullback on the major indexes during the week.

The Nasdaq fell, but recovered the 12,000 level Thursday. The S&P 500 edged lower while the Dow Jones moved higher.

Google stock had a solid week and Meta Platforms (META) kept rising. Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft stock were little changed, at the edge of buy zones. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil (XOM), Merck (MRK) and UnitedHealth (UNH) had big weekly gains.

But there were a lot of big losers. Construction and industrial-related groups tumbled Tuesday while growth stocks sold off Wednesday. Many suffered significant damage, while others could move back into position relatively soon. Thursday’s rebounds, often from key levels, were definitely encouraging.

Defensive growth and defensive names had a strong week, including medicals, consumer staples and utilities.

Will those areas continue to do well if a “risk-on” mentality returns?

Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.

Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.

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