Stocks closed higher yesterday with all of the major indexes in the green. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way with an outsized gain of 2.07%, followed by the S&P 500 with 1.18%. It should also be noted that the Dow, small-cap Russell 2000, and mid-cap S&P 400, made new all-time high closes in the process.

After a weekend of clashes, the U.S. and Iran agreed to halt attacks, and allow shipping to resume in the Strait of Hormuz, ahead of the next round of peace talks set to take place in Qatar today.

Plenty of big tech and AI-related names rebounded as well, after being a bit of a drag last week.

Yesterday's Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey report showed the index at 0.0 for June vs. last month's 0.4. The Production Index was at 4.1 vs. last month's 9.4.

Today we'll get the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, the FHFA Home Price Index, the Chicago PMI, Consumer Confidence, and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (or JOLTS for short).

Lots of employment data out this week. After today's JOLTS report, we'll get tomorrow's (Wednesday), Weekly Jobless Claims, the Challenger Job-Cut Report, and the ADP Employment report.

But the main event regarding jobs this week will be Thursday's Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The headline number is expected to show 114,000 new jobs were created in June (124,000 in the private sector and -10,000 in the public sector). That would be a slower pace than May's 172,000 headline, but the private sector would actually be a bit higher than last month's pace of 120K. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.3%. And average hourly earnings are expected to be up 0.3% m/m (same as last month), while the y/y rate ticks up to 3.5% vs. last month's 3.4%.

Previously, the Fed saw the labor market as the bigger risk and began focusing on that more so than inflation. But then the Middle East conflict happened, and inflation (due in large part to rising oil prices), once again, became the Fed's biggest concern.

Gladly, with U.S.-Iran hostilities easing (the ceasefire that began in early April has been going on for nearly 3 months now), and oil continuing to fall (crude is down -40.1% since its conflict high in April, and is up only 5.11% since the war began), inflation should start falling as well.

But we'll have to wait until mid-July before we get another look at inflation.

In the meantime, the market will be focused on the labor market this week.

Remember, it's a shortened trading week this week as the markets will be closed on Friday in observance of July 4^th Independence Day.

So the week is likely to be a busy one, especially with stocks trading at or near record highs.

See you tomorrow,