GOOD MORNING! Even though held ground near its overnight high after President Trump did little to reassure that war in the Middle East was nearing a swift resolution, stocks and Treasuries pared their early morning deep losses. The catalyst for stocks and bond prices coming off their lows was a report that Iran was drafting a protocol with Oman to monitor traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The Treasury market may have also been helped by its safe haven status as the stock market is closed today for Good Friday. Both stocks and Treasuries ended Thursday’s session little changed from Wednesday’s close. The Treasury market will only be open until noon Eastern time and the desks may manned by junior traders with instructions from senior traders not to screw up. They will have their chance with the March employment report. Based on a survey of economists by Bloomberg, the consensus estimate is for payrolls to have increased by 65k and the unemployment rate to hold at 4.4%. It probably be that as the leading labor market data has been mixed and the source of the report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hasn’t had a good history of being accurate. With a lot of the markets closed, the only thing moving is Treasury prices. They are drifting lower in the first trades as Iran targeted more sites in the Arab Gulf states overnight.