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In this article * SI Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Now Hiring signs are displayed in front of restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on March 19, 2022. Stefani Reynolds |

Afp | Getty Images _This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know,

no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe __here__._ Markets — and Powell — are holding their breath for Friday's jobs report. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY * Stocks

in the U.S. finished Wednesday mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index the only major index to fall. In Asia-Pacific, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.52% as the country managed to squeeze

out annualized 0.1% growth in the fourth quarter of 2022, narrowly escaping a recession. * The U.S. doesn't want to sever its economy from China's. It doesn't want to

suppress China's economy either. That's what a State Department spokesperson said, in response to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang's remarks that the U.S. needs to "hit

the brake" to prevent conflict between the two nations. * Two data points released yesterday showed that the labor market's still tight. There were 10.824 million job openings in

January, down 410,000 from December but still higher than expected. Private payrolls in February increased by 242,000 month over month, reported payroll services firm ADP. * Silvergate Bank,

a crypto-focused bank with more than $11 billion in assets, will be wound down and liquidated. Last week, the bank was dropped by cryptocurrency companies worried about its financial health

— Silvergate suffered a bank run after crypto exchange FTX imploded. * PRO Yesterday was International Women's Day. To commemorate the occasion, CNBC highlighted this ETF, which only

invests in companies led by women — and is expected to rise by 20% this year, beating the S&P 500. THE BOTTOM LINE At a Congressional hearing yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell called

the jobs market "extremely tight." It was a prescient comment. Two jobs reports released yesterday showed the labor market remaining stubbornly robust. First, the U.S. Labor

Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. While it indicated that job openings fell in December, the absolute number's still uncomfortably high (for economists

worried about inflation, at least): there were 1.9 job openings per available worker. Indeed, according to ADP, private payrolls in February increased, led by an 83,000 addition in the

leisure and hospitality sector. The combination of a tight labor market and — perhaps more crucially — the concentration of job additions in the service sector means that risks of inflation

from services persist. There's some good news buried in the reports, however. (Again, a caveat first: It's only good news in terms of controlling inflation; it might not be music

to workers' ears.) The JOLTS report showed that workers quitting — a sign of confidence in mobility — fell to the lowest level since May 2021. Layoffs rose sharply, hitting 241,000, a

16% month-over-month increase. Wage growth decelerated in February, too. Workers remaining in their jobs saw a 7.2% annual increase, down 0.1 percentage points from January; job changers saw

a more drastic fall of 0.6 percentage points. Markets chewed on that mixed bag of data and made little movement. The Dow dipped 0.18%, while the S&P 500 edged 0.14% higher and the 

Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%. They also paused yesterday's selloff after hearing Powell's fresh comments on Wednesday that the Fed has not decided what to do during its March

meeting. "We will be guided by the incoming data," Powell said, suggesting that he, like investors, is holding his breath until Friday, when the more comprehensive nonfarm payrolls

report is released. _SUBSCRIBE __HERE__ TO GET THIS REPORT SENT DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX EACH MORNING BEFORE MARKETS OPEN._