Don’t look now, but we’ve not only entered calendar Q4 to start a new trading week, but it’s also Jobs Week: Tuesday brings us a new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for August (expected to come in steady at 8.8 million job openings), Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP) September private-sector payrolls Wednesday (projected to come down to 150K), and Friday’s big Employment Situation report for September (170K new jobs estimated, with Unemployment ticking down to 3.7%).
Late last week, the federal government avoided a shutdown for the next 45 days, as Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy reached a budget resolution deal with Democrats and some Republicans, 90 of whom voted against it. The deal includes no new funds for Ukraine, but will keep important government jobs operating at least til mid-November. This dodges a bullet that may have slowed the economy even further.
After today’s opening bell, we’ll see the final print on U.S. S&P Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing, both for September, and Construction Spending for August. While manufacturing looks to bump up marginally, construction spending is expected to tick down a tad. None of these reports will have the impact the cumulative jobs reports will, at least in terms of how the Fed considers interest rate levels, but they do give specific insights into how different aspects of the economy are operating.
Meanwhile, the downward momentum in pre-market activity continues: the Dow is -85 points at this hour, the S&P 500 is -10 and the Nasdaq -25 points. Only the Nasdaq closed Friday in the green, even after the day looked promising early on; pressures relating to myriad factors — including rising bond yields (the 10-year remains north of 4.6% while the 2-year is at 5.1%) — are keeping a wet blanket over positive sentiment in market trading.
For the past month, keeping with September’s reputation for being a rough one in the markets, we’re down anywhere from -3% on the Dow to -4.8% on the small-cap Russell 2000. Year to date, all major indices are still in the green, although another mere -1% or -2% slip on the Dow or Russell would push them both into the red. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq remains +35% from the start of the year (down roughly -10% from its year-to-date peak), while the S&P is +12%.
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October Starts the Way September Ends
Don’t look now, but we’ve not only entered calendar Q4 to start a new trading week, but it’s also Jobs Week: Tuesday brings us a new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for August (expected to come in steady at 8.8 million job openings), Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP) September private-sector payrolls Wednesday (projected to come down to 150K), and Friday’s big Employment Situation report for September (170K new jobs estimated, with Unemployment ticking down to 3.7%).
Late last week, the federal government avoided a shutdown for the next 45 days, as Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy reached a budget resolution deal with Democrats and some Republicans, 90 of whom voted against it. The deal includes no new funds for Ukraine, but will keep important government jobs operating at least til mid-November. This dodges a bullet that may have slowed the economy even further.
After today’s opening bell, we’ll see the final print on U.S. S&P Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing, both for September, and Construction Spending for August. While manufacturing looks to bump up marginally, construction spending is expected to tick down a tad. None of these reports will have the impact the cumulative jobs reports will, at least in terms of how the Fed considers interest rate levels, but they do give specific insights into how different aspects of the economy are operating.
Meanwhile, the downward momentum in pre-market activity continues: the Dow is -85 points at this hour, the S&P 500 is -10 and the Nasdaq -25 points. Only the Nasdaq closed Friday in the green, even after the day looked promising early on; pressures relating to myriad factors — including rising bond yields (the 10-year remains north of 4.6% while the 2-year is at 5.1%) — are keeping a wet blanket over positive sentiment in market trading.
For the past month, keeping with September’s reputation for being a rough one in the markets, we’re down anywhere from -3% on the Dow to -4.8% on the small-cap Russell 2000. Year to date, all major indices are still in the green, although another mere -1% or -2% slip on the Dow or Russell would push them both into the red. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq remains +35% from the start of the year (down roughly -10% from its year-to-date peak), while the S&P is +12%.
Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>