NEW YORK - If last week was Wall Street's big dive, this week will be where it tries to figure out how deep the water is.

A Wall Street sign is shown, Friday, March 2, 2007 in New York. Stocks fell in the final session of a tumultuous week as the yen rallied against the dollar Friday and concerns about the strength of the US economy still weighed on investors following a plunge in stocks early in the week. [AP]

Stocks are in for a shaky ride, now that the past five sessions have erased all of this year's gains and then some. Investors in the coming days will be grasping at any and all signals, both domestic and foreign, to see if the market can find a foothold.

Most market watchers now agree that last week's plunge doesn't signal disaster. The stock market, which pushed the Dow to 31 record highs since early October, had been climbing at a pace that was arguably more extraordinary than the depth of Tuesday's drop. Chatter about a big correction had been circulating the floors of stock exchanges for months - it just came as a shock that so much of the correction happened in a single day.

What the sages are split over is whether stocks have hit a short-term dip or entered a bear market, so they'll be closely watching this week's economic data. Many say there's no reason that stocks shouldn't resume their trek into record territory in the coming months, given that little has changed fundamentally in terms of the average consumer, corporate earnings, manufacturing activity or inflation. But others argue that stocks had inflated way too much given the torpidity of many areas of the economy, and that there is still more air to be let out.

The Dow Jones industrials are down 3.3 percent on the year, the Standard & Poor's 500 index is 4.4 percent lower, its biggest weekly point drop, and the Nasdaq composite index is down 5.9 percent.

If the Labor Department's employment data on Friday shows stability in US jobs - previously a big market driver, as it suggests consumers will keep spending money - the stock market has a better chance of regaining its footing. At the end of last week, the market was expecting February nonfarm payrolls growth to slip to 100,000 from 111,000 in January; February's unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.6 percent; and hourly earnings to inch up 0.3 percent, more than January's 0.2 percent. Other reports, including a snapshot of the nation's service economy and the US trade balance, will also be closely watched.

No matter where the data falls, however, Wall Street is anticipating choppiness this week as some investors flee from stocks to the traditionally safer Treasury market, while others swoop in to scoop up bargains.

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