Today's Scoop:

Hey friends, it’s almost Friday. Look out for our Weekly Scoop tomorrow and enjoy the weekend.

Here’s what you need to know today…

1. Investors are panicking about the stability of regional banks.

2. Layoffs picked up last week but are still pretty low overall.

3. US exports jumped in March.

S&P 500: 4,061.22
1Mo: -1% | 1Yr: -2% | 5Yr: +49%

The market drifted lower today from not-so-great corporate reports and financial system concerns.

A series of events this week have investors worried about the stability of regional banks. The week kicked off with the 2nd-biggest bank failure in US history, First Republic Bank. First Republic suffered massive withdrawals from depositors amidst the panic in March and hasn’t been able to recover. JPMorgan Chase absorbed First Republic Sunday night. Thursday, another regional bank, PacWest Bancorp, said it’s looking for buyers. That worried investors more, even tho PacWest said its deposits are fine. Then, TD Bank and First Horizon called off a merger because they couldn’t get regulatory approval. Investors don’t love seeing failed bank mergers when you have small banks looking to merge with bigger banks to help strengthen their financial stability. It threatens the broad assumption that small banks can just get saved by big banks when they’re in trouble.

Layoffs inched up last week but are still broadly low. The Labor Department reported initial unemployment claims rose to 242,000 last week. We’ll get the full April jobs report tomorrow. [🤓]

US exports jumped in March. The Commerce Department reported a surprise narrowing last month of the US trade deficit, the gap between what we import and export. Goods and oil exports jumped the most.

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• McDonald’s fined for employing 10-year-olds

• Anheuser-Busch InBev avoids Bud Light backlash update

• Google employees complain about CEO pay package

• Moderna looks for its next product

• Shopify slims down

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Employment Reports

There are four main reports people watch to understand trends in the labor market.

The main "jobs report" comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of each month. It highlights the unemployment rate, new jobs added, and wage growth.

The Labor Department also releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) each month but on a one-month lag. That report helps us understand how many open positions there are, how many people quit their jobs, and how many were hired.

There's also a monthly private-sector survey from payroll services company ADP that doesn't include government jobs and the weekly initial unemployment claims (a proxy for layoffs) report from the Labor Department.

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