Good Friday: Markets Closed, Jobs Beat at +178K

The Holiday Close

U.S. equity markets are closed today for Good Friday. The final regular session of the week was Thursday, April 2, when VOO closed at $602.99, gaining $0.69 (+0.11%) from the April 1 close. As noted in this morning's VOO Pre-Market brief, the Good Friday holiday means the Bureau of Labor Statistics' March Employment Situation report, released at 8:30 AM EST today, dropped into a closed market. The next regular NYSE and Nasdaq session is Monday, April 6. That session will be the first opportunity for equities to price in today's payrolls data.

What Drove the Move

The headline event today is the March jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls rose 178,000 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, well above the Wall Street consensus estimate of approximately 59,000 and a sharp reversal from February's revised decline of 133,000 jobs. The beat was broad-based: health care led with 76,000 new positions, followed by construction at 26,000 and transportation and warehousing at 21,000. Government employment was roughly flat on the month.

The unemployment rate came in at 4.3%, though the bureau noted the decline partly reflected a reduction in labor force participation rather than broad hiring gains alone. The more significant signal for Federal Reserve watchers is average hourly earnings: wages rose 0.2% for the month and 3.5% year over year, the slowest annual pace since May 2021. That combination of solid job creation and cooling wage pressure represents a relatively constructive backdrop for equities. Strong hiring keeps recession fears in check; slower wage growth eases inflationary pressure and may give the Fed more room to cut rates later in the year.

Prior months were revised in opposite directions. January was revised up by 34,000 to a gain of 160,000, while February was revised down by 41,000 to a decline of 133,000. The net revision is roughly neutral. Taken together, the three-month trend shows significant volatility in the data but a labor market that has not collapsed, which is the key question heading into Q1 earnings season. For VOO holders, the fund's largest sector exposures in technology, financials, and health care are each sensitive in different ways to the rate and employment outlook, so the jobs data is broadly relevant even if there is no direct same-day price reaction today.

By the Numbers

What It Means for VOO Holders

The jobs report lands at a moment when VOO has been recovering from a difficult stretch. The fund closed Thursday at $602.99, approximately 6.1% below its 52-week high of $641.81 and roughly 6.0% below its January 1, 2026 starting level. The recovery from the March 30 intraday low of $578.46 represents a gain of 4.2% over three sessions, driven primarily by improving signals on the Iran-Hormuz situation and the ADP beat reported Wednesday. Today's March jobs data adds another layer to that recovery narrative: labor demand remained intact through Q1 even as the geopolitical and energy backdrop was at its most disruptive.

A jobs beat of this magnitude would typically support a gap-up open for equities, but the February revision to negative 133,000 introduces some caution. The labor market data for early 2026 is unusually volatile, and economists will debate how much of the March rebound is genuine hiring versus statistical noise. Long-term holders in funds like VOO, covered in the VOO guide, have historically been well served by not over-indexing to any single data release. The quarterly earnings cycle, which begins April 14 with major bank reports, will provide a more detailed picture of how S&P 500 companies are actually faring. See also the Q1 2026 performance review for context on where the fund stands entering Q2.

Looking Ahead

Sunday evening futures will provide the first live market read on the jobs data. The Monday, April 6 regular session opens at 9:30 AM EDT and will incorporate the payrolls print, any weekend geopolitical developments in the Iran situation, and overall risk appetite heading into Q1 earnings season. The following week brings the Producer Price Index and consumer sentiment surveys. Major bank earnings begin April 14 with JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, both significant positions in VOO's financials allocation. The VOO past performance calculator can be used to model how different Q2 return scenarios compare to historical patterns.