Wall Street Week Ahead: Job growth could calm stocks' nerves

If hiring picked up in March at a healthy pace, that could convince US stock investors next week that the economy's recent setbacks caused by the weather were only temporary. Friday's monthly jobs report, the most widely watched US economic indicator, is expected to show that nonfarm payrolls added 200,000 jobs in March, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

The rebound in hiring started last month despite the icy weather. Employers added 175,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in February after creating 129,000 new positions in January.

Wall Street will get more data on the broader economy next week as well.

The Institute for Supply Management will release its national surveys for March on the manufacturing and services sectors, which are expected to show improvement from the previous month as well. Rosier data could confirm for investors that recent weakness in economic data was caused by the winter's harsh weather, suggesting the US economy's uptrend is intact.

Improvement in the labor market, along with a pickup in the manufacturing and services sectors, could also bolster the case for the Federal Reserve's scaling back of economic stimulus and put more focus on the timing of when the central bank will begin raising interest rates.