Friends
This morning’s jobs report had a little something for everyone. For those who are desperately hoping for a Fed rate cut in September, the 130,000 new jobs created in August was just disappointing enough to pretty much assure the Fed will accommodate in a couple of weeks. For those looking for more positive data the 3.7% unemployment rate is nice, as is the increasing participation rate. In addition, the .4% increase in wages (3.2% year over year) is the best we’ve seen in some time and a good omen for the consumer class and its recipients.
All that produced a decent backdrop for stocks, and the upward momentum continued in today’s trading session. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 69 points to finish the day at 26,797. The S&P 500 was up 2 points to close at 2,978. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1,515 per ounce, while oil was up $.27 to trade at $56.57 per barrel WTI.
It was a good week for the bulls with the market averages moving closer to earlier in the year highs. This would certainly be no time for complacency, as a tweet or a headline could cause a course reversal at any moment, but despite all the hand wringing and worries of a coming recession, stocks are only a percent or two from all-time highs. With trade talks “scheduled” for October, the FOMC meeting in a couple of weeks will be foremost on the minds of market participants as we begin trading next week. We’ll be back at it with you next week.
Have a great weekend everyone.
