After Booming Jobs Report, Market Is Flat

Dow ticks up and S&P ticks down
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2022 3:19 PM CDT
After Booming Jobs Report, Market Is Flat
A Wall Street sign hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

A jobs report that came in much stronger than expected had the potential to roil the stock market Friday. Instead, major indexes ended up relatively flat. The Dow rose 76 points to 32,803, the S&P 500 slipped 6 points to 4,145, and the Nasdaq fell 63 points to 12,657. Market futures had dropped sharply in the immediate wake of the unemployment data because of the familiar good-news-is-bad-news rationale of investors: The strong hiring suggests the economy is not in a recession, but it also suggests the Fed will continue to cut rates to tamp down inflation.

“Anybody that jumped on the ‘Fed is going to pivot next year and start cutting rates’ is going to have to get off at the next station, because that’s not in the cards,” Art Hogan of B. Riley Financial tells CNBC. “It is clearly a situation where the economy is not screeching or heading into a recession here and now.” A similar view: “It's a reminder for investors on how uncertain Fed policy is going forward and the strong jobs market data shows just how far the Fed has to go,” Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, tells the AP. (More stock market stories.)

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