Jobs Indigestion, Earnings in Coming Week

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock traders will play catch-up Monday as the market digests Friday's weaker-than-expected employment report.

Then all eyes will turn to first-quarter earnings season, which officially kicks off after the bell Tuesday with Alcoa's(AA) results.

On Friday, the government announced that nonfarm payrolls increased 120,000 in March, far short of the 200,000 gain that economists had been expecting.

The stock market was closed in observance of Good Friday. But in what could be a preview of Monday's action, stock futures slumped on the news.

At the CME, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures closed down 131 points, or 1%, at 12,847 after hitting a low of 12,837 following the weak jobs report.

S&P 500 futures closed at 1375, down 15 points or 1.1%, after sliding as low as 1372.50.

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Although the increase in March payrolls marked a significant decline from the 246,000 average for the preceding three months, some economists said it was likely a hiccup rather than a significant change in labor-market trends.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the modest March increase was "payback" for gains in January and February due to unseasonably warm weather.

"Admittedly, the payback is a little bigger than we had expected, but we don't think this is the start of another spring dip in labour market conditions as we saw in 2010 and 2011," Ashworth wrote in a research note. "Even factoring in the March disappointment, the three-month average gain is still 212,000 and we expect employment to continue rising at about that pace over the next few months."