U.S. equities up modestly after mixed Monday finish. Stocks in the U.S. are up in early trading as prices move in tandem with WTI crude oil.

Crude oil is in the news again today, with Saudi Arabia replacing its long-time oil minister, and thus, potentially signaling a change in maintaining its high production.

Stocks near flat, oil strength fades. U.S. equities are clinging to gains this morning despite a slide in WTI crude crude oil prices from overnight highs.

As we highlighted in our earlier blog post, the April employment report was a mixed bag, at best, with a slowdown in hiring, a pickup in wages, and ongoing weakness in temporary help jobs—a key forward-looking metric.

This is the first of two blogs today we will devote to the April jobs report. Here we will take a broad look at the results, while the next post will dive into some of the specifics.

Stocks lower, jobs report misses expectations. U.S. equities are trading in the red this morning, and a disappointing headline read on nonfarm payrolls is sustaining the cautious mood on Wall Street.