Jobs and earnings will dominate the first full week of May. Here's what's ahead

If next week's jobs report shows a still resilient labor market, that could relieve investors wary of a weakening economic outlook. The U.S. economy is expected to have added just 50,000 jobs in April, far below the prior blowout reading of 178,000, according to FactSet consensus estimates. The unemployment rate is expected to have held steady at 4.3%. A "goldilocks" report could alleviate fears of a weakening U.S. economy, as some recent signals have suggested. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew at a 2% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the first quarter, higher than 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025, but below the 2.2% estimate. Bob Lang, founder and chief options analyst at Explosive Options, expects a strong jobs number could be welcome news for the stock market, though he also doesn't expect it will do much to the interest rate outlook. That's because the latest Federal Reserve meeting suggested a reduction isn't in the cards anytime soon, after three dissents on the policy statement showed a lack of support for an "easing bias" in the current moment. Markets have adjusted their expectations as well. After coming into the year pricing in two rate cuts, the recent fed funds futures pricing shows little likelihood of a reduction coming until well through next year. Sell in May There are other reasons to be wary. …