Stocks return from holiday weekend 🐰

Stocks closed higher on Thursday, their last trading session before the holiday weekend. The Nasdaq jumped 0.7%, while the S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Dow closed flat. The small-cap Russell 2K squeaked out a 0.1%. gain.

This morning, futures are trending lower in early premarket trading. S&P 500 contracts are currently down 0.2%.

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💼 March Jobs Report Falls Short

March employment data dropped on Friday while the market was closed for the Easter holiday.

The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March, missing Wall Street's 238,000 median forecast. However, March's 3.5% unemployment rate came in below the median 3.6% forecast.

M&A rumors are lifting shares of Pioneer Natural.

The U.S. shale oil producer has reportedly participated in preliminary talks with Exxon Mobil regarded a potential acquisition.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story while the market was closed for the holiday on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

If the deal materializes, it would be Exxon's largest deal since combining with Mobil back in 1999.

PXD is leading the S&P 500 with a 8.0% gain in today's premarket.

My Take: This could be a good time to "buy the rumor, sell the news." PXD shares could push even higher if a deal materializes. Share prices trended higher through most of March, before this news even hit the market.

A bullish analyst note is boosting shares of Micron.

CFRA announced this morning that it was maintaining a "buy" rating on the semiconductor giant's stock.

The note cited a "meaningful" memory chip production cut from Samsung Electronics that analysts expect will be favorable for other chip producers.

"We think the Samsung production cuts will help further normalize inventories and stabilize memory prices," CFRA wrote in its note.

The note didn't include a price target for the stock, but its tone was overly bullish.

MU is one of today's top S&P 500 stocks with a 6.2% gain on the news.

My Take: MU has performed well over the past few months, although share prices have been very volatile. The stock's valuation isn't great, with a P/E of 42.06, but the macro environment seems to be shaping up in Micron's favor.

Assure Holdings is trending higher after a recent analyst note.

Last Thursday, Benchmark analyst Bill Sutherland maintained his "speculative buy" rating on the MedTech company.

The news broke Thursday morning, but the stock's initial reaction was muted and it closed the trading day flat.

Sutherland also lowered his price target on IONM to $8 from his previous estimate of $20.

IONM is one of today's top premarket stocks with a 25.8% gain.

My Take: I'm not sure what exactly is fueling this news today. Sutherland slashing his price target isn't exactly bullish, but shares are up anyway. It's very small $3.41 million market cap could be playing a role in the sudden rally.

Merger news is boosting shares of Arrival SA this morning.

On Thursday, the electric-vehicle startup announced it had agreed to a business combination deal with Kensington Capital Acquisition V SPAC [KCGI].

The deal set a pro forma enterprise value of $524 million for the soon-to-be combined company.

Upon closing, the new company will continue to call itself "Arrival" and it's shares will list on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol ARVL.

Both companies' boards have approved the deal, and the merger is expected to close in the second half of 2023.

ARVL is up 39.3% on active trading volume in early premarket trading.

My Take: I've never seen a SPAC deal for a stock that's already listed, so I'm not really sure what to make of this news. I would imagine that most of the good news is already priced into ARVL at this point, anyway.

Wholesale inventories [Feb] ... 10:00a