Economic data, ADP jobs down, productivity drops, ISM holds steady, plus earnings are a confusing mess. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 05-04-2016 DOW – 99 = 17,651 SPX – 12 = 2051 NAS – 37 = 4725 10 Y – .02 = 1.78% OIL + .24 = 43.89 GOLD – 7.30 = 1279.40 Private-sector employment gains slowed in April. According to Automatic Data Processing employers added 156,000 new jobs in April; it was the lowest level in 3 years. The ADP report is an early indicator of Friday’s non-farm payroll report from the Labor Department. The Friday jobs report is expected to show about 200,000 new jobs in April, but that’s before the weak report from ADP.   The productivity of U.S. businesses and workers fell by a 1% annual rate in the first quarter, marking the fourth decline in the past six quarters. Over the past year productivity has risen at a 0.6% pace, well below the historic 2.2% U.S. average. In the first quarter, output of the goods and services businesses sell edged up 0.4%. Yet the amount of time employees worked rose a much faster 1.5%. As a result, unit labor costs climbed 4.1% in the first quarter, the biggest increase since the end of 2014. Still, unit labor costs have risen just 2.3% in the past year, little changed from the prior quarter. Higher productivity is the key to better pay and an improved standard of living.   The U.S. trade deficit shrank in March ...