“I’m looking at these job numbers for August, sir, and…well…I’m not super excited”
Dow: 13,307 (+0.11%) S&P 500: 1,438 (+0.41%)
President Obama climaxed last night in Charlotte, North Carolina with another evocative speech to the National Democratic Convention – and he was probably looking forward to an Air Force One trip filled with the “White House Honey Ales” his administration has now been famously home-brewing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. After this morning’s jobs news, we hope he enjoyed a frosty one for breakfast as well. The Labor Department’s highly anticipated monthly employment report, the highlight of the week, came in below expectations, after yesterday’s European Central Bank policy decision sent the S&P 500 to a 4-year high. The Dow added a mere 15 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index reached its highest level in 12 years.
Labor Department reports fewer jobs added in August than expected, unemployment dips
The Labor Department reported that the US added 96,000 private sector, non-farm jobs in August, below both the 125,000 expected by analysts and the 201,000 predicted by payroll firm ADP yesterday. Although July’s jobs numbers were also revised slightly lower, keep in mind that historically the August employment data has fallen below forecasts around 75% of the time over the last 30 years. While the unemployment rate dipped from 8.3% to 8.1%, economists point out that this reflects a greater number of folks dropping out of the workforce as opposed to getting jobs (also, the unemployment rate comes from a survey of households, while the jobs report surveys businesses – which partially explains opposing conclusions of the two reports). Negative reaction to the news is offset slightly by expectations that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s hand will now be forced to enact economy-boosting stimulus policy at his September 12th-13th policy meeting (bad news is sometimes good news to Wall Street), but it’s not the bottle of bubbly that the President ordered to celebrate the convention yesterday.
Green Mountain Coffee soars 13% after positive stock rating from Lazard
Boutique investment bank Lazard Capital Markets began coverage on Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR) stock today and gave a positive review, citing meaningful room for further penetration into American households with their patent K-cup coffee. Ever been in corporate America? If you have then you know that the K-cup pods of coffee can be made in a jiff and come in single cup portions, so you don’t need to share an awful flavor chosen by your boss, Bill Lumburgh. Lazard thinks its next frontier is the American household, slapping a “buy” rating on the stock and investors obeyed the order. GMCR rose 13% today.
Next Week:
- The Federal Reserve policy meeting is going to be the talk of the town as they say…
- A serious serving of consumer data
- And arguably the most anticipated event of the week, Apple is expected to unveil its new iPhone (look out for long lines of eager nerd-hipster hybrids crowding sidewalks along Apple stores nationwide)
© 2012 MarketSnacks
