U.S. equities continued their volatile streak on Thursday with indices rebounding more than 1.5% but the near-term trend is still down. The rise of the Omicron variant is gaining traction and could derail the global recovery. With the S&P 500 still down about 2.5% from the recent high investors should expect volatility to continue in the near term at least.

Friday?s trading will be impacted by the NFP report as well as COVID-related fears. The NFP report is expected to show upward of 500K new jobs created last month and there is risk in the number. A weaker-than-expected figure would be bad for economic growth while a hotter figure would put extra pressure on the FOMC to taper and hike rates. In either case, if the market closes lower today you can expect it to move even lower next week.