Market Drama

Welcome to this week’s Market Drama!

• The Stock Market:
  • The S&P 500 was up and so was Nasdaq.
    •  S&P 500 was up 2.5% last week.
    • Nasdaq was up 3.2% for the week. 
• Treasury bond yields fell (bond prices went up).
  • All in the back of softer-than-expected job data. 
• Economic Data:
  • In August, U.S. non-farm payroll was mixed.
    • Total non-farm job numbers were 187,000 above expectations of 170,000.
  • Labor force participation was up to 62.8% (highest post-pandemic).
  • The more people there are working or looking for a job, the less pressure there is on wages, and wage growth is directly linked to inflation. 
  • Average hourly earnings were up 4.3% year-over-year.
  • Hourly earnings below 4% indicate a good sign for inflation. 
  • If we continue to see better-than-expected inflation numbers lose their job market, but not a full blown recession, that seems to be the sweets pot for treasury yields to be falling and for stock markets to continue to go up.

Stay tuned for next week. 

– Andres