U.S. Stock Market Falls on Employment & Housing Data
The Dow, the S&P and the NASDAQ all suffered their first losses in three days at market open this morning.
The drop was caused by not-so-good employment and housing data, and on the news that short-term interest rates in Europe rose to the highest since January 2001.
Although the big employment news will come from the Labor Department on Friday, a closely-monitored employment reading showed that the private sectors added the fewest workers in August than they have in four years.
Bloomberg reports: "The 38,000 increase [in jobs] last month was less than half the 80,000 gain predicted in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The figure follows a revised figure of 41,000 for July that was smaller than previously estimated."
This data is just a teaser of what's to come from what Chuck Butler likes to call "The Jobs Jamboree" on Friday. While the Labor Department report is always breathlessly awaited by those who breathlessly await these kinds of things, this month there is even more of a sense of anticipation. The Fed's decision to cut or not to cut will factor in the jobs reading...if the report is stronger than expected, it could dash the hopes for a rate cut.
Also dragging down Wall Street is the news that pending home resales fell 12.2% in July to 89.9, according to the National Association of REALTORS. "Economists in a Bloomberg survey projected a 2.2 percent drop."
Kate Incontrera
for The Daily Reckoning Australia
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About the Author
Kate Incontrera is the managing editor of The Daily Reckoning. She is also the author of The Daily Reckoning's Weekend Edition, a weekly wrap-up of contrarian investment analysis.