Stocks closed lower yesterday as uncertainty over the Middle East conflict continues.

Yesterday was day 6 of the conflict. Iran fired missiles at 6 countries yesterday. Despite the success the U.S. and Israel are having in their campaign, Iran continues to retaliate. Additionally, with most oil shippers unable to travel the Strait of Hormuz (Iran has effectively shut it down to most western-allied vessels), the price of oil climbed once again, gaining more than 5%, and hitting their highest price in roughly a year and a half.

In other news, yesterday's Import and Export Prices report showed import prices up 0.2% m/m, in line with last month's 0.2% pace, and above the consensus for 0.1%. Import prices, on a y/y basis, however, were down -0.1% vs. last month's 0.0%. Export prices were up 0.6%, in line with last month's upwardly revised 0.6% (from 0.3%), while the y/y number was up 2.6%, easing from last month's 3.1% pace.

Weekly Jobless Claims were unchanged at 213,000 last week. The smoother 4-week moving average was down 4.5K at 215.75K.

And the Challenger Job-Cut Report came in at 48,307 vs. last month's 108,135.

But the jobs report everyone is really waiting for is this morning's Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The consensus is calling for 60,000 new jobs being created in February (65K in the private sector and -5K in the public sector), with the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.4% from last month's 4.3%. That would be a sizable drop vs. January's headline number of 130,000 (172,000 in the private sector and -42,000 in the public sector). But it would be in line with Wednesday's ADP Employment report, which showed private payrolls increasing by 63,000 in February vs. 43,000 expected. The BLS report comes out at 8:30 AM ET this morning.

After the close yesterday, Costco reported earnings and posted a positive EPS surprise of 0.66%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.52%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 13.9% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 9.23%. They were down -2.40% in the regular session before earnings, and were off another -0.20% in after-hours trade following earnings.

We also heard from Marvell Technology after the close, and they reported a positive EPS surprise of 1.27%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.86%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 33.3%, and a sales growth of 22.0%. They raised their Q1 revenue guidance by 5.26% above expectations. And they raised Q1 EPS guidance by 6.76% above expectations. They were off -3.09% in the regular session, but soared by more than 15% in after-hours.

We'll hear from another 86 companies on deck to report earnings today.

With one more day to go, most of the major indexes are down for the week. But the Nasdaq is in the green. A friendly jobs report today could help a few others join the Nasdaq in the winners circle. But a less friendly report could keep them all out for the week. We shall see.

Best,