We warned readers yesterday to "Prepare For Disappointment" with today's jobs report, and sure enough that's precisely what we got when moments ago the BLS reported that in August just 156K jobs were created, a big miss to the 180K expected, and following a sharp downward revision to June and July, which were revised to 210K and 189K, respectively, a 41K drop combined.
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The point is the present system cannot endure.
Despite all the happy talk about "recovery" and higher growth, wages have gone nowhere since 2000--and for the bottom 20% of workers, they've gone nowhere since the 1970s.
While the excuses are already flowing for the big miss in August's payrolls, markets are reacting with currencies the biggest factor.
Yields are now unchanged...
The dollar dumped immediately and precious metals spiked, bond yields fell marginally and while Nasdaq jumped a little initially, stocks are now all modestly lower...
With payrolls looming (our full preview is here), carbon-based traders around the globe are leery of putting on any major trades and so the overnight session has been rather dull, dominated by the now traditional overnight algo-mediated levitation, which means the VIX is lower and S&P futures are once again modest higher as European and Asian shares continue their ascent.
Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
The skies are clearing over Houston, but the damage from the remaining elements of Hurricane Harvey has spread east to Port Arthur and Lake Charles along the Texas-Louisiana border. That has knocked more refineries offline, including the largest refinery in the United States.