Red-hot Job Market Spells Trouble for Stocks
Last week was a volatile one for stocks, with key data around inflation, and job growth, both being released. While inflation continues to stay high, investors were left to assess the impact of an absolutely stellar report regarding job growth.
The labor market added 528,000 jobs in July. Absolutely smashing predictions that called for around 250,000 new jobs. Unsurprisingly, this meant unemployment also ticketed lower. Unemployment rate dropped down to 3.5%, also beating expectations.
We also saw growth in wages continue to tick higher. Up 0.5% for the month and up over 5.3% from a year-ago. While higher wages might sound great on paper, this can be directly attributed to inflation. With just about everything being more expensive, rises wages may signal that high inflation is still a very real problem.
With all this new information, traders are left to wonder, how will the Fed react to a very strong labor market. Does this point to more rate hikes and additional fiscal tightening?
Unemployment Hits Pre-Pandemic Levels
Unemployment has continued to tick lower in recent quarters, mostly as those jobs lost to the pandemic have been slowing coming back. Many of the industries most affected by the pandemic are now the continuously leading the job hiring.
Industries like, food and beverage, hospitality, travel, and entertainment. Though the hospitality industry is still 1.2M workers below their pre-pandemic levels. We saw a sharp rise in job growth into the retail sector, this despite warnings from major players such as Target and Wal-Mart that consumer spending habits are shifting.
The unemployment rate is now back to its pre-pandemic level, tied for the lowest since 1969. As we previously noted, we also saw hourly wage growth jump higher. Consumer prices are rising at their fastest rate since the 1980s, and this is just another example of how.
With the talks of a recession intensifying, are we in one already? Is one on the way? This report around job growth should be viewed favorably when assessing the current condition of our economy. More people are going back to work. Unemployment is trickling lower. Wages are moving up. But could this be another prime example when there’s good news for the economy, it’s actually bad news for stocks?
Markets React
Stocks opened last Friday (one day after the jobs report) in red. A clear sign that good economic news may not be so positive for stocks. Investors are clearly concerned that as hiring continues to stay extremely high, the Fed will once again be incentivized to step in and apply more pressure through interest rate hikes.
The consensus coming into this report was that job growth should begin slowing due to the rate hikes applied by the Fed. While we’ve seen big technology companies talk about how they plan to slow hiring in future quarters, our current job market remains red-hot.
What it Means: Anyone hoping we had moved past the worst of the rate hikes got a quick reminder that we aren’t out of the woods yet. Despite all of the major indexes recording their best months in two years, an unexpected eruption of new jobs has the market taking a more cautionary stance this week.
Once again, all eyes will be watching the Fed to see if and how they react to the positive economic data. Last weeks job reports are one of the key datapoints the Fed will use to assess its next round of rate hikes. It looks like traders have already begun preparing for a tougher stance from the Fed going forward.
State of Emergency over Monkeypox
Last week, the Biden Administration declared a health emergency over the growing Monkeypox outbreak. As we’ve seen in the past with Covid, this declaration will allow the federal government to amp up its response to virus without the usual regulatory barriers.
Health and Human Services (HHS) also declared they would be ‘taking their responses to the next level’ when dealing with this virus.
The country has reported more than 6,600 cases of the virus, which causes fever, aches, bumps, and sores. Right now, it seems to be passed on through skin-to-skin contact. Unlike Covid, which we all know as an airborne pathogen.
Biden officials have been under a growing level of scrutiny for their slow response time, in acting for the new virus. Going forward, with this new declaration, the government will be able to expedite data sharing so we can have comprehensive and timely data available for the public.
What it Means: So far, the stock market has not seemed too concerned with this ongoing health scare. But we’ve all lived through Covid, and we know how quickly things can change. Currently, over 25,000 cases have been reported globally. We’ll be watching closely to see how this impacts the fear index, and if it will add another level of uncertainty to the stock market.
Meta Platforms Confirms NFT Rollout
Following a series of testing phases, NFT integrations are now live on Instagram across 100 countries. This new move will be done as part of a new integration with Coinbase, the world's largest crypto exchange.
After a successful test launch in May, IG users will now be able to showcase their art through NFTs on the Meta owned platform. Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Meta also confirmed plans to eventually integrate NFTs on the Facebook network as well.
Shares of Meta have seen little traction based on the news. Coinbase however, has seen a significant jump despite still being well below its one-year highs.
What it Means: When Facebook pivoted from a social network to the future of the metaverse, they made it very clear they were going to be rolling out different products and completely overhauling their operations. In a newsletter from last month, we reported that overall trading volume for NFTs has been depressed as investors have been shedding risk from their portfolios. Meta clearly sees this as the right time to incorporate NFTs into their platforms.