Can jobs report help markets turn things around?

China's stock market is in shambles. U.S. shares are off to their worst four-day start to a year ever. It has been anything but a happy start to the new year for investors.

That's why Wall Street is hoping for any evidence that shows the U.S. economy is holding up amid the financial market chaos engulfing investors early in 2016.

"There's a deep-rooted gloom out there that is self-reinforcing," says Thomas Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors. And the cause of the gloom is now well-known. China's economy is slowing. Oil is at its lowest price level in 12 years. The Nasdaq composite has slipped back into correction territory, or 10% below its July peak.

That's why Lee says Friday's December employment report (Wall Street is looking for 200,000 new jobs) and the coming fourth-quarter 2015 earnings season are critical to the U.S. stock market stabilizing.

"The jobs report Friday" and fourth-quarter earnings are important because the U.S. has been the healthiest economy," Lee says. "So there is going to be a lot of jitters."

Despite the fact the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrials are off to their worst start to the year in history, Lee doesn't think U.S. stocks' slow start to 2016 portends doom.

"I don't think it's a bear market but neither does it feel like a buy hand-over-fist moment," he said.

Stocks around the globe stabilized Friday after a horrific week. The Shanghai composite in mainland China gained 1.97% in the first day of trading in which trading new "circuit breakers" were suspended after causing panic in the first four sessions of the year.

Shares were also higher in Europe, where the broad Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.7%.

In the U.S. stock futures were trading higher around 5:15 a.m. ET, with the Dow Jones industrials up 1.2% and the S&P 500 1.3% higher.

Lee sees some clouds parting for stocks once this downdraft plays out.

"I think the supports for markets later this year are still in place," he says, citing better earnings comparisons after last year's flat profit growth due to a big rise in the dollar, a still-strong housing market and an eventual improvement in the supply and demand imbalance in the oil patch."

Adam Shell on Twitter: @adamshell.

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