Friends
Stocks struggled once again today but not nearly as much as they did during yesterday’s trading session. On the economic front job openings fell to a level we haven’t seen in more than 3 years. The JOLTs number showed that we have 7.67 million job openings in this country, down from the more than 10 million openings we have seen over the past couple of years. At the peak we had more than 2 job openings for every worker and now that is getting closer to 1-1. Tomorrow, we get the weekly jobless claims and then the all-important non-farm payroll number on Friday. Stay tuned.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 38 points to finish the day at 40,974. The S&P 500 was down 8 points to close at 5,520. The Nasdaq was down 52 points to close at 17,084. Gold was up $1 to trade at $2,533 per ounce, while oil was down $1.45 to trade at $68.89 per barrel WTI.
The slowing of the economy narrative is picking up steam again. Friday’s jobs number will likely dictate whether the Fed cuts the Fed Funds rate by a quarter of a point or a half of a point at this month’s meeting. Market participants seemed to feel pretty good about things when August came to a close. Two trading days later and the narrative has gotten pretty negative again- just as it was at the beginning of August. It will be an interesting ending to this week. We’ll let you know how it plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
