Stocks closed mostly higher yesterday, eking out small gains.

The port strike enters day 3 today. The strike affects ports on both the East and Gulf Coasts. If the strike lasts for only a few days, the economic damage is expected to be limited. But if it drags on, it could be significant. Nobody knows how long it will last and what the impact will be.

Today marks the second day since Iran's missile attack on Israel. The world is waiting to see what type of response we'll see from Israel. Tensions are high in the Middle East.

In other news, yesterday's Motor Vehicle Sales came in at 15.8 million units (annually) vs. last month's 15.3M. North American-Made Sales were at 12.2M vs. last month's 11.6M.

MBA Mortgage Applications were off -1.3% w/w vs. last week's 11.0%, with purchases up 0.7% vs. last week's 1.4%, and refi's down -2.9% vs. last week's 20.3%.

The ADP Employment Report showed 143,000 private payroll jobs were created in September vs. the consensus for 121,500 and August's 103,000.

Today we'll get the PMI Composite Final report, the ISM Services Index, and Factory Orders.

We'll hear from Fed policymakers Beth Hammack, Alberto Musalem, Michelle Bowman, and Thomas Barkin as they speak at their respective engagements throughout the day.

And we'll also get more jobs numbers with Weekly Jobless Claims and the Challenger Job-Cut Report.

But the jobs report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the moment, the consensus is calling for 132,500 new jobs to have been created in September (125K in the private sector and 7.5K in the public), while the unemployment rate stays steady at 4.2%. That would compare to August's 142K (118K in the private sector and 24K in the public).

If the estimates are correct, both September's job tally and August's would be better than July's much weaker-than-expected 89K (74K in the private sector and 15K in public), especially given July's estimates for 180K (155K private, 25K public). Stocks sold off after that, resulting in a correction.

Stocks bounced back since then with both the Dow and the S&P making new all-time highs.

Another strong report will help show that July's weak showing was the exception and not the new rule going forward. A weaker report could suggest that the Fed is behind the curve. So all eyes will be on Friday's report.

As I mentioned yesterday, October, and the larger Q4, got off to a rough start with Tuesday's decline. But the odds for a strong finish are in the bulls favor for both periods.

Stocks typically perform well in October. The month has gotten a bad rap since some high profile crashes took place in October in the past, including the Panic of 1907, Black Tuesday in 1929, and Black Monday in 1987. But overall, October fares pretty well.

Same goes for Q4 as a whole. Since 1950, the S&P has increased in the last 3 months of the year by more than 4%. And it's up 80% of the time.

And with the interest rate-cutting cycle having begun (stocks typically perform well when interest rates are lowered), that suggests even better things in store for stocks as we head into the end of the year.

See you tomorrow,