The markets are down this morning, off about 45 points at 10:30 AM EST, thanks to an upward spike in jobless claims ahead of tomorrow's much-anticipated March unemployment numbers. The stock market seems to have priced in a lousy-jobs number, it just depends on how lousy it is. Analysts estimate the economy shedding a net-50,000 jobs for March, with the unemployment number rising from 4.8% to 5.0% - still well within the levels of employment the media raved about 10 years ago, when Bill Clinton was president, but sure to be touted by the recession-rooting media as a disaster if a 5.0% number hits the markets tomorrow.

A sideline note. Both Monster.com and ADP issue monthly employment indexes and both were up slightly for March.

Back in the tech sector, Research in Motion (RIM) astounded analysts (and delighted stockholders) with a rousing fourth quarter revenues number yesterday, with profits rising 120% to a whopping $412 million, and sales rising to 102%, to $1.88 billion. Analysts had predicted $1.85 billion and yours truly estimated $1.90 billion, so RIM came in well within expectations. Reuters has a dispatch this morning saying that RIM, maker of the Blackberry handheld multi-media phone, added 2.18 million new customers during the fourth quarter, and now as 14 million customers overall.

Wall Street tech gurus say that the Apple iPhone may have had a huge impact on RIM, spurring the company to market itself more aggressively to the consumer market. Says Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek on Yahoo.com today, "I think the iPhone was the single biggest blessing RIM ever had."

Another tech headliner I mentioned earlier this week - Schering-Plough - stung by the Vytorin clinical trial failure announced this week (two years after the fact) - says it will cut $1.5 billion in expenses by 2012, reports The Wall Street Journal. That's about 5,500 jobs, or 10% of the company's workforce. The Journal reports that Schering's stock has fallen almost 30% since a study unveiled last weekend recommended that doctors limit use of its blockbuster cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia.

The $1.5 billion expense cut will hopefully protect the company now that Vytorin - reportedly credited with 60% of all of Schering's drug sales - is on the outs with doctors and their patients.