Syrian air strikes to unsettle ASX, jobs report in focus

"After outsized seasonal volatility over the summer (in original terms) March sees a return to 'normal'," TD said. "We look for +30k with upside risk, i.e. much higher than Jan/Feb but well below last year's outsized +57k. If the participation rate remains at 65.7 per cent then the unemployment rate can return to 5.5 per cent."

NAB also is bullish. "It's now been 17 consecutive months of employment growth and still counting," the bank's director of economics David de Garis wrote in a week-ahead note.

"NAB's forecast for March employment based on its reading of the economy calls for yet another month of solid growth, an increase of 25K, just above the 20K market consensus," Mr de Garis said. "Whether by dint of a change in trend or through sample effects, the stretch of the growth elastic will break at some point. As a survey of 26,000 dwellings, there's always the possibility of an outlier from sampling effects alone."

Mr de Garis also said indicators of labour demand such as from the NAB business survey and job ads point to continuing ongoing growth in the demand for labour, consistent with some further solid growth in prospective employment.

Also important for local investors this week will be China's first-quarter GDP report. Citigroup is expecting a 6.7 per cent year-over-year rise. The economy's strong performance in January and February beat market expectations and "given the sizeable PMI rebound and our activity forecasts for March, we think the economy may continue to show its resilience", the bank's economics research team said.

China will release its latest economic growth, industrial production, fixed-asset investment and retail sales data on Tuesday.

Wall Street's three benchmarks drifted lower on Friday and as expected ASX futures drifted lower too. The Australian dollar was little changed as well.

Part of the reason for the cautious trading was the early earnings' misses. S&P 500 companies' earnings are forecast to rise 18.5 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data - the highest in seven years.

"That is a high bar, which we suspect means fewer companies are likely to beat as they did during the previous low-bar earning," Tematica Research's chief macro strategist Lenore Hawkins said in a note.

"After last year's record low volatility, the market is on track this year to have 100 or so trading days with at least a 1 per cent range in the S&P 500," Ms Hawkins also said. "The years in which this has last occurred? 1974, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2009 – I'd say that's not exactly indicative of a bull market."

Somewhat foreboding, on Friday in New York, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo reported higher quarterly results though their shares fell as they missed expectations.

JPMorgan reported quarterly records for both income and revenue, which of course prompted its shares to end 2.7 per cent lower.

While the return of volatility bolstered activity for stock traders at the banks, it failed to do the same for fixed income.

As a result, investors will be keen to see whether Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs or Bank of America, which will report in the days ahead, help provide a clear view of the outlook at least for financials.

LPL Financial chief investment strategist John Lynch said investors shouldn't worry yet: "We expect this earnings season to be another strong one, driven by solid global economic growth, robust manufacturing activity, a weaker US dollar, and the benefits from the new tax law."

In the background — or centre stage — is the Trump administration's pursuit of a better trade relationship with China. After President Donald Trump's initial battery of tweets putting China on notice, and China's willingness to respond in kind, the rhetoric has eased.

The easing of the trade tensions could be a sign that both the US and China are keen for a negotiated resolution.

On Friday in Washington, the US Treasury Department failed once again to name China a currency manipulator in its latest review of the foreign exchange policies of its major trading partners. China, however, along with five other nations, is on the department's monitoring list.

"China should advance macro-economic reforms that support greater household consumption growth and help rebalance the economy away from investment. Treasury also places significant importance on China adhering to its G-20 commitments to refrain from engaging in competitive devaluation and to not target China's exchange rate for competitive purposes; and on greater transparency of China's exchange rate and reserve management operations and goals."