Why investors are on edge ahead of Friday’s jobs report
CNN
Wall Street is eyeing what could be the most consequential economic data report in months due out Friday.
Wall Street is eyeing what could be the most consequential economic data report in months due out Friday. Inflation has cooled significantly since the Federal Reserve began aggressively hiking interest rates more than two years ago to tame it. That’s led the central bank to shift its focus to the other side of its dual-mandate: maximizing employment. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that “the time has come for policy to adjust,” all but cementing a rate cut in September. Now, it’s just a question of whether the central bank will ease rates by a quarter- or half-point later this month. Friday’s jobs data will be critical in that determination. At the same time, Wall Street is looking for signs that the job market is cooling steadily, rather than plummeting into conditions for a recession. Economists project that US employers added 160,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2% in August, according to FactSet consensus estimates. Preliminary data has shown that the job market is continuing to cool. Payroll processor ADP reported Thursday that hiring cooled more than expected in the US private sector, with businesses adding just 99,000 jobs last month. “We’re in a ‘good news is good, and bad news is bad’ environment, and markets are still trying to figure out if the economy is slowing too much, and whether the Fed is behind the curve,” wrote Christopher Larkin, managing director of Morgan Stanley’s digital brokerage product E*Trade, in a Thursday note.
Union members at Boeing overwhelmingly rejected a proposed a four-year contract with the troubled aircraft manufacturer, authorizing the first strike at the company in 16 years, said the International Association of Machinist (IAM) union. About 33,000 workers are prepared to walk off the job, and the strike is set to begin early Friday morning.