- Investors asses latest employment report that showed 130K increase in nonfarm payrolls.
- Falling crude oil prices weigh on energy shares on Friday.
- Coming up: FOMC Chairman Powell’s speech on economic and policy outlook.
Major equity indexes in the United States started the last day of the week on a mixed as investors assess the latest labour market data and wait for FOMC Chairman to deliver his remarks on the economic and policy outlook later in the session. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.05% on the day, the S&P 500 was virtually unchanged on a daily basis and the Nasdaq Composite was erasing 0.2%.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported that nonfarm payrolls in August increased by 130,000 and missed the market expectation of 158,000. However, average hourly earnings in the same period rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis in the same period and came in a tad better than analysts’ estimate of 0.3%.
Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the defensive Real Estate and Utilities indexes are posting modest gains to point to souring market sentiment. On the other hand, a more-than-2% drop in the price of the barrel of West Texas Intermediate seems to be weighing on the Energy Index, which was last down 0.7%.
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