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OK, the market didn't get crushed today, but it's not like we've decidedly evaded a meltdown. We're still right on the cusp of bigger technical trouble.

Was that too much of a jolt to get the new week started? Sorry - didn't mean to freak anyone out. Truth be told, even a stumble from here isn't going to be anything to sweat just yet. The market ebbs and flows all the time, and even a pullback now isn't likely to start a new bear market or mark the beginning of a recession. We're just saying, the bulls are still playing with fire.

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As is usually the case on the first Friday of every month, today we're going to delve into this morning's employment numbers for February and see if we can get a grip on what's really happening on the jobs front. We've also got a reader question we want to answer along with a quick look at the market after today's strong selling (yes, things changed for the worst... maybe). But, since it's the big news for the day, we'll get the ball rolling with a look at the unemployment data you didn't hear as much about.

The Complete Employment Snapshot

Just to give credit where it's due, John Monroe over at the Elite Opportunity took a look at some of our current employment trends as well in that newsletter today. Some of it was information we're going to look at in a moment, but he also had a deeper look at the stark divergence between the U-6 and the U-3 numbers that we won't be able to get to in this newsletter.

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Welcome back to the trading week, one and all. How was your weekend?

For those of you who were waiting on the information, we finally got updated numbers from Standard & Poor's regarding Q4's marketwide earnings results. These still aren't the absolute final numbers for last quarter; only about 95% of the S&P 500's constituents have posted last quarter's numbers. The final 5%, though, could take forever to get their numbers in. We'll just go with what we've got, as we really need to put Q4 in the rear view mirror now that the end of Q1 is in sight.