Employment Situation, Unemployment Rate

Equity futures are deep in the red this morning after substantial losses yesterday. The culprit continues to be European sovereign debt concerns in Greece, Portugal and Spain, which is sending European and Asian stocks rapidly south.

Labor data from the US isn’t helping as jobless claims unexpectedly rose to 480k yesterday. The big questions today are how did January employment perform, and what impact can it have on the markets?

Yesterday the Dow fell 268 points, or 2.61%, putting the the industrial index into four-digits for the first time since early November. The S&P 500 performed even worse as it shed 3.1% â€