The following is an excerpt from Zacks Chief Strategist John Blank’s full Apr Market Strategy report To access the full PDF, click here.

I. Intro

On April 4th, 2025 we learned the U.S. economy added a solid +228K jobs in March.

Within government, Federal government employment declined by -4K in March, following a loss of -11K jobs in February.

Are you surprised by this low Federal job cut data? Don’t be.

Read this addendum to that DOGE related data—

(Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the establishment survey.)

The private ADP payroll report, out earlier this week, on Wednesday, April 2nd, showed +155K private job adds.

That too was solid!

Regardless of the latest U.S. nonfarm jobs data from March, building global growth and U.S. recession worries turned down the major share indices.

A correction is firmly in hand.

Want the YTD index returns for Q1, ending on April 4th, 2025?

• The narrow DJIA was down -7.44%
• The S&P500 was down -20.84%
• The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down -14.43%, and
• The small cap RUT index was down -14.33%

This is, at the least, a broad valuation re-set.

The last two years delivered exceptional annual returns years for U.S. share indices.

Now, let’s turn to the sector and industries within the U.S. private economy.

Read on for that.
 

II. What fundamentals are U.S. stock markets pricing in? 

Next, Zacks shows YTD returns to April 1st, 2025. 

The S&P500 was down -4.91% YTD. 

Two S&P500 (SPDR) sectors showed outperforming returns, YTD to April 1st, 2025.

• Energy $XLE: +8.74%, and
• Health Care $XLV: +5.45%

Five S&P500 sectors offered underperforming, positive YTD 2025 returns:

• Utilities $XLU: +3.76%
• Consumer Staples $XLP: +2.83%
• Real Estate $XLRE: +2.46%
• Financials $XLF: +2.18%, and
• Materials $XLB: +1.56%

Four major S&P500 sectors offered negative YTD 2025 returns:

• Communication Services $XLC: -0.82%
• Industrials $XLI: -0.92%
• Info Tech $XLK: -11.09%, and
• Consumer Discretionary $XLY: -11.94%

Next, is a top-down discovery section. 

This material is aimed to help stock pickers identify a top Zacks Rank stock, in a top Zacks industry.

That is a “tried-and-true” success strategy.
 

III. Zacks APRIL 2025 Sector/Industry/Company Telescope

The March 31st, 2025 Zacks Industries showed the first signs of the new tariff-driven administration.

Zacks Industry Ranks supplied one Very Attractive Sector: Info Tech.

Tech earnings growth gets lifted by “AI” data/cloud centers and tech mega-cap earnings strength. But yes. There is a big valuation pullback here!

Three Attractive ratings landed on Communication Services, Financials, & Health Care.

A Market-Weight rating stayed on with Consumer Discretionary, while Energy fell to a Market-Weight rating.

Two Unattractive Sectors were: Utilities and Industrials.

Two Very Unattractive Sectors were: Materials & Consumer Staples.

(1) Info Tech stayed on as a Very Attractive sector. Semis & Electronics led.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) stock: Baidu (BIDU Quick QuoteBIDU - Free Report) )

(2) Communications Services fell to Attractive from Very Attractive. Utility-Telephone was the best.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) stock: Ubiquiti (UI Quick QuoteUI - Free Report) )

(3) Financials stayed Attractive. Investment Banking & Brokering, Finance, Banks & Thrifts, and Banks-Major looked best.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) stock: Barclays (BCS Quick QuoteBCS - Free Report)

(4) Health Care rose to Attractive from Unattractive. Medical Products was top-ranked.

(5) Consumer Discretionary stayed at Market Weight. Consumer Electronics and Non-food Retail/Wholesale looked good.

(6) Energy fell to Market Weight from Attractive. Oil/Gas Pipelines looked the best.

(7) Utilities fell to Unattractive from Market Weight. Utility – Telephone looked the best.

(8) Industrials rose to Unattractive from Very Unattractive. Metal-Fabricating looked strong.

(9) Materials stayed Very Unattractive. Steel looked best. Must be tariffs there!

(10) Consumer Staples fell to Very Unattractive from Unattractive. Soaps & Cosmetics was strongest.
 

IV. Conclusion

March 2025 was a difficult month for stocks.

But stay optimistic on April! A warmer Spring may be here.

The ‘buy the dip’ crowd may get stocks moving up once again.

Enjoy the rest of my APRIL 2025 Zacks Market Strategy report.

Warm Regards,

John Blank, PhD.
Zacks Chief Equity Strategist and Economist