Wall Street Drops as Jobs Surge Lifts Fed Hike Odds — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Wall Street dipped broadly Friday — Dow fell 0.54% (292.47 pts to 53,393.64), S&P 500 lost 0.50% (to 7,708.70), Nasdaq dropped 0.51% (to 26,448.92) — leaving all three essentially flat on the week heading into the Labor Day holiday.
- August nonfarm payrolls surged by 162,000 jobs, nearly triple the 56,000 consensus, with June and July figures revised up by a combined 55,000; unemployment held at 4.1% while labor force participation increased.
- Fed rate-hike odds jumped to 58.4% for the September meeting (from 49.4% Thursday) per CME FedWatch, with Horizon's Mike Dickson citing Warsh's Jackson Hole assessment of a 'very healthy' labor market and warning a hot CPI next week would seal the case.
- Lululemon tumbled 17.4% after cutting its full-year profit and revenue forecasts, dragging consumer discretionary to the worst-performing of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.
- Adobe dropped 5.7% after longtime CEO Shantanu Narayen announced he would hand the reins to insider Anil Chakravarthy.
- Credit bureaus cratered on FHFA Director Bill Pulte's directive that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac approve all lenders using VantageScore — Fair Isaac lost 15.7%, TransUnion fell 6.9%, Equifax slid 7.0%.
- Semiconductors (.SOX) gained 2.7% as the session's standout sector despite remaining down more than 18% this quarter, while software/services dropped 2.0% after a prior 24% quarterly gain — a daily 'see-saw' pattern one analyst said has persisted for weeks.
Why it matters: A strong jobs report is being read as a tightening signal rather than a tailwind, and the CME FedWatch jump from 49.4% to 58.4% for a September hike now prices in policy that would directly pressure rate-sensitive sectors. Credit bureaus lost 7-15.7% on a single VantageScore directive, illustrating how regulatory headlines can override the macro narrative in narrow pockets of the market.
Ask SkimNews
