Wednesday brought ADP job figures and Trade Balance data. Private sector employment increased by 235,000 jobs from January to February according to the February ADP National Employment Report.“The labor market continues to experience uninterrupted growth,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.  “We see persistent gains across most industries with leisure and hospitality and retail leading the way as consumer spending kicked up. At this pace of job growth employers will soon become hard-pressed to find qualified workers.”

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $56.6 billion in January, up $2.7 billion from $53.9 billion in December, revised. January exports were $200.9 billion, $2.7 billion less than December exports. January imports were $257.5 billion, down less than $0.1 billion from December imports. The January increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $2.8 billion to $76.5 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.1 billion to $19.9 billion.

On Thursday Unemployment Claims data was published. In the week ending March 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 231,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 210,000. The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 220,500. Claims taking procedures in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands have still not returned to normal. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.3 percent for the week ending February 24, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate.

Friday's US session was marked by Non-Farm Employment report. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.Employment rose in construction, retail trade, professional and business services, manufacturing, financial activities, and mining. In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $26.75, following a 7-cent gain in January. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 68 cents, or 2.6 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 6 cents to $22.40 in February.

This week markets will be looking at:

CPI (Tuesday 13:30)

PPI (Wednesday 13:30)

Retail Sales(Wednesday 13:30)

Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (Thursday 14:30)

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

Building Permits/Housing Starts (Friday 13:30)

Industrial Production (Friday 15:15)