Trade War Madness Continues As Non-Farm Payrolls Slip

Stocks gained again on Thursday as fears of a widespread trade war between the United States and China eased a bit, though the rhetoric has become thicker and more belligerent as the saga unfolds.

The escalation of tariff-building between the world's two largest economies appears to be evolving into a major spat, keeping traders on Wall Street jumping, though not out of windows, yet.

Whatever is going down, it's going to continue and no amount of speculation is going to ease the volatility in stocks.

Traders' fears will not be assuaged on Friday morning by the non-farm payroll report for March, which showed job gains of only 103,000, far below estimates of 185,000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average April Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
4/2/18	23,644.19	-458.92	-458.92
4/3/18	24,033.36	+389.17	-69.75
4/4/18	24,264.30	+230.94	+161.19
4/5/18	24,505.22	+240.92	+402.11

At the Close, Thursday, April 5, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,505.22, +240.92 (+0.99%)
NASDAQ: 7,076.55, +34.44 (+0.49%)
S&P 500: 2,662.84, +18.15 (+0.69%)
NYSE Composite: 12,571.94, +105.49 (+0.85%)