On Friday, September 6th, U.S. markets closed lower after a jobs report revealed a labor market slowdown, causing uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's next steps on interest rates. All major indexes dropped, with the S&P 500 and Dow seeing their biggest weekly declines since March 2023 and the Nasdaq since January 2022.
In August, the U.S. economy added 142,000 jobs, falling short of the expected 160,000 and following a revised increase of 89,000 in July. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3%, while average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% to $35.21, compared to a 0.2% gain in July.
Most S&P 500 sectors fell, with communication services, IT, and consumer discretionary, leading the losses, while real estate stocks closed slightly higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.01% and closed at 40,345.41. The S&P 500 ended the day lower by 1.75% at 5,408.42, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.55%, finishing the session at 16,690.83.
Asian Markets Today
- On Monday, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed lower by 0.72% at 36,159.50, led by losses in the Shipbuilding, Machinery, and Electrical/Machinery sectors.
- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.32%, ending the session at 7,988.10, led by losses in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary, and Energy sectors.
- India's Nifty 50 was up 0.37% at 24,943.50, and the Nifty 500 was higher by 0.11% at 23,504.05.
- China's Shanghai Composite was down 1.06%, ending the session at 2,736.49, and the Shenzhen CSI fell 1.19%, closing at 3,192.95.
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the session lower by 1.42% at 17,196.96.
Eurozone at 05:30 AM ET
- The European STOXX 50 index gained 0.95%.
- Germany's DAX rose 0.82%.
- France's CAC was up 0.79%.
- U.K.'s FTSE 100 index traded higher by 0.69%.
Commodities at 05:30 AM ET
- Crude Oil WTI was trading higher by 1.06% at $68.39/bbl, and Brent was up 0.99% at $71.76/bbl.
- Oil futures rose on Monday as a potential hurricane near the U.S. Gulf Coast sparked concerns over supply disruptions, helping prices recover from last week's losses. Analysts attribute the rebound to weather risks but note ongoing concerns about demand and OPEC+ actions.
- Natural Gas fell 3.56% to $2.194.
- Gold was trading higher by 0.02% at $2,525.10, Silver gained 1.06% to $28.480, and Copper rose 1.87% to $4.1500.
US Futures at 05:30 AM ET
Dow futures were up 0.57%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.70%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.93%.
Forex at 05:30 AM ET
The U.S. dollar index rose 0.35% to 101.54, the USD/JPY rose 0.83% to 143.46, and the USD/AUD gained 0.09% to 1.5014.
Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock
