ANCHOR (OFF-CAMERA) ENGLISH SAYING:

So in the set up to the Friday job report, we get a couple of other data points, one of them being the ADP Report- very strong in terms of jobs growth. Could we be surprised with Friday's number?

ALEC YOUNG, GLOBAL EQUITY STRATEGIST, S&P CAPITAL IQ (ENGLISH) SAYING:

Could it come in over 150,000? I think it could. If we also look at the ISM Manufacturing Report that we got, if we look at the employment component there, that jumped 4.3 points to 52.7 so a nice jump well into expansionary territory. Now, that only speaks to the manufacturing sector of the economy but that's certainly a positive. So I think there's a good chance that we can get a 1.50+ type number. 1.50 has been about the average over the last year or so. So I think overall the economic data, despite tremendous uncertainty coming out of Washington, has been on an upward trend. Well, we kept hearing from CEOs, right, that they're uncertain, they're reluctant to hire, they don't know what's coming out of Washington. So, in theory, we know; I mean it's not totally resolved.

ANCHOR (OFF-CAMERA) ENGLISH SAYING:

Do you think that companies are going to step it up in terms of hiring or was that just an excuse?

ALEC YOUNG, GLOBAL EQUITY STRATEGIST, S&P CAPITAL IQ (ENGLISH) SAYING:

I think we are going to see a firmer toned hiring. I mean, while the fiscal cliff deal didn't address long term entitlement and spending reforms and I think we're hopeful that that will get addressed in the next couple of months at least to some extent, it did remove a lot of uncertainty on the tax front. And so I think to the extent that tax uncertainty was part of the reason for that reluctance to hire, a lot of that has gone away. So while we're not looking for an explosion in hiring, I think last year we had a sort of steady, low six figure hiring every month, I think it's reasonable to assume that we could see a bit of an uptick in that this year.

ANCHOR (OFF-CAMERA) ENGLISH SAYING:

So are companies using all that cash they have then to start adding to payrolls?

ALEC YOUNG, GLOBAL EQUITY STRATEGIST, S&P CAPITAL IQ (ENGLISH) SAYING:

We know as well, according to S&P, 2013 is going to be a record year for dividend payments. So, are we starting to see some of that cash that was stockpiled moving around in various fronts here? Slowly, but I think it's too early to say that companies are really ready to do a huge uptick in hiring. Certainly, they're looking at creative ways to use the cash so that plays into dividends, buybacks; we may see a pickup in M&A. But I think they still have that underlining concern about demand out there for their products and they really need confidence there before they're going to hire a lot of people. And I think getting through the debt ceiling debate, where we are with long term budget issues, I think that's going to go a long way to unleashing that. So I think there's potential for that as we move through the year. But it's hard to really make a case for that in the first quarter because it's still a very uncertain time from a macro perspective.