The Buzz on Business for September 6th, 2024 

Stocks were again mostly lower on Thursday, a bit of a rebound in the large cap tech stocks kept the NASDAQ out of the red for the day. 

Fears of economic weakness seem to be getting the blame but, we don’t see it. Earlier this year, the economic data was uniformly bullish, especially data out of the labor market. That, clearly, is no longer the case. The data has been mixed at best and points to a weakening economy, but, in our view, weakening from a relatively strong position. 

As we’ve said this week, the economic reports out of manufacturing on Tuesday were disappointing. No doubt, manufacturing is weak and weakening. 

And the JOLTs report on Wednesday disappointed and pointed to a weakening labor market. Stocks were mostly lower on Tuesday and Wednesday and perhaps the case can be made that the disappointing data was the proximate cause of the selloff. 

But the data we got yesterday was mostly good. Not Earth shattering but not bad. And markets sold off anyway. 

Call it the September Effect, call it a long overdue correction after a historic rally, or maybe it’s just all the bulls enjoying some of their profits out in the Hamptons. We think the data supports a continuation of this rally, especially in the new era of lower interest rates. 

But, later this morning, we get the Jobs Report from the Labor Department. If we were a betting man, and we’re not, we’d lay odds that the news will be mixed, mostly good, but mixed and stocks will nevertheless continue in correction mode. 

Stock Market Report 

Stocks finished mixed but mostly lower on average volume. 

• The Dow Jones Industrials were off 219 points, that’s a bit over 0.50% on the Dow and they closed at 40,756. 

• The S&P 500 was down 0.30% and closed at 5,503 for a 17-point loss. 

• The NASDAQ Composite bucked the trend. The techs were up, up after three straight down days. They closed at 17,128, up 0.25% or 43 points. 

• Not so much the small caps. The Russell 2000 was off 0.60% and closed at 2,132, down 13 points. 

Bond Market Report 

Rates were down across the board but not as much as we saw on Wednesday.  

• The yield on the 2-year treasury was down 2 basis points and it closed at 3.741%. 

• The 20-year was off 3 ticks and stands at 4.106%. 

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin 

• Oil looked like it wanted to rebound but it faded into the close to finish with a $0.05 loss and a barrel now changes hands at $69.15. 

• Gold rallied $20.90 on the lower rates and a troy ounce will now set you back $2,545.20. 

• And Bitcoin continues to struggle. It was down another $1,522.52 and at 4:00 PM ET stood at $56,576.09. 

ADP Payroll Report Disappoints 

This is the data that was released on Thursday. 

• Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims both came in better than expected and better than last week. Good news, here. 

• ADP released its nonfarm payroll report, and it missed expectations by a wide mark. The giant payroll processing firm reported that the economy created 99,000 in August. Consensus expectations were for 144,000. The ADP numbers are often quite volatile but still, a pretty big miss. 

As we said, today the Labor Department's monthly jobs report is released. Expectations are for 139,000 new jobs and for an unemployment rate that has ticked down from 4.3% to 4.2%. 

Everyone one here at the Ministry of Truth will have one eye on the telescreen and the other on the Giant Quote Machine come 8:30 AM ET this morning so we can immediately get to work slicking and dicing all the data so we can deliver all of it to you here on the Buzz.