Can stocks notch a weekly win on this jobs day?
The market really shouldn’t care how many jobs the U.S. added last month, but it instead should focus on the 0.3% wage growth that was just reported and what it means for inflation and interest rates, writes MarketWatch’s Jeff Bartash.
And what’s the deal with the gyrating market?
The S&P 500, up 0.3% for the week, keeps “bouncing along above 2,800 support,” CrackedMarket’s Jani Ziedins tells his subscribers, highlighting a round number that other chart watchers have eyed as well.
But Ziedins isn’t that upbeat in general: “We are in the slower summer months, and price moves are more likely to reverse than continue.”
Our chart of the day suggests a big unwind is taking place for stocks. It shows parallels with silver’s SIU8, +0.26% moves seven years ago. It comes from Market Anthropology’s Erik Swarts.
“Overall, we still suspect equities SPY, +0.43% are taking the long goodbye, very much along the lines of how silver SLV, +0.49% and gold GLD, +0.35% exhausted from their respective parabolic tops in 2011,” Swarts writes.
He points to similar action, with the S&P 500 making a lower high last week below its January record close.
Swarts says the S&P’s rebound is over, if it keeps acting likes silver did. Or as he puts it: “Should the comparative continue to prove prescient, equities are now on the backside of the long retracement rally that began in April.”
Key market gauges
Futures for the Dow YMU8, +0.47% , S&P 500 ESU8, +0.45% and Nasdaq-100 NQU8, +0.27% are little changed. That’s after the Dow DJIA, +0.54% dipped yesterday, but the S&P SPX, +0.46% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.12% both gained as Apple climbed into $1 trillion market cap territory.
The Dow is on track for a weekly loss of 0.5% as of yesterday’s close, while the Nasdaq is up 0.8%.
European stocks SXXP, +0.65% are advancing, after Chinese stocks dropped but Japan gained. Gold GCZ8, +0.15% is up slightly, while oil CLU8, -0.41% and the dollar index DXY, -0.01% are dipping. Bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.68% is changing hands around $7,400.
There’s one key reason to bet on Sonos, says iBankCoin’s The Fly for our call of the day.
“I do not care about valuation, nor what your feelings are about the market. I know this and this alone: Everyone worth talking about enjoys their Sonos speakers,” he writes, after the company’s stock soared yesterday in its trading debut.
His take dovetails with what a Sonos SONO, +5.22% executive told MarketWatch’s Emily Bary — namely, that the maker of high-end speakers has a differentiated and long-lasting product. That inspires loyalty, the company reckons.
“Let it be known that Le Fly stepped in sideways and purchased shares of SONO at $17.80 for the explicit purposes of profit,” iBankCoin’s founder says.
The buzz
The nonfarm payrolls report said the U.S. added 157,000 jobs in July, below forecasts. Unemployment fell to 3.9%, matching expectations, while average hourly earnings rose 0.3%, above estimates for 0.2% growth.
Trade-tensions damage: China’s stock market is no longer the world’s second largest. Congrats to new No. 2 Japan.
Classic Woz: Apple AAPL, +0.29% co-founder Steve Wozniak isn’t really that into the trillion-dollar-market-cap hype.
Why are traders increasingly betting against lithium miners Albemarle ALB, +0.64% and SQM SQM, +1.39% ? “There’s a perception that in the short term there’s a bit of oversupply,” one portfolio manager tells Reuters.
A further breakdown in oil prices may help convince investors that an important high could be in place, says Brown Brothers Harriman’s Marc Chandler.
Kraft Heinz’s stock KHC, +8.55% is jumping premarket after the company posted earnings ahead of the opening bell, and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, +1.17% is due to report after this week’s trading is over.
Videogames maker Take-Two TTWO, +8.98% looks set for a big up day after its results late yesterday, while burger seller Shake Shack SHAK, -11.89% is heading in the other direction.
The quote
“Today is a victory for Tennesseans who want an outsider.” — Businessman Bill Lee last night celebrated his victory in a bruising Republican primary for Tennessee governor.
The underdog candidate had never before sought public office and portrayed himself as closely allied with President Trump, a Wall Street Journal story notes.
Meanwhile, a former WWE star won a mayoral race in the Volunteer State.
