Stocks wavered as traders awaited fresh economic figures for clues on whether the labor market is cooling too much amid elevated Federal Reserve rates. After a shaky start to September, equities struggled to gain much traction, with Nvidia Corp. leading losses in chipmakers. Just a few days ahead of the all-important US payrolls report, data is expected to show the total number of job openings has largely stabilized, but labor demand and the breadth of hiring is narrowing. That would reinforce market bets on rate cuts, with swaps currently projecting the Fed will cut its rate by a full percentage point in 2024.
“If we see further evidence of more people becoming unemployed than there are job openings in the coming months, this will raise fears about the health of the jobs market and will warrant a shaper easing stance from the Fed,” said Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
The S&P 500 was little changed. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 0.3%. Nvidia sank about 1.5%. The Russell 2000 of smaller firms dropped 0.2%.
Treasury 10-year yields declined two basis points to 3.82%. The dollar retreated. The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point for a third consecutive meeting, and reiterated that it’s “reasonable” to expect more easing to come if inflation keeps decelerating.
While above the modest 114,000 gain in July, average payrolls growth over the most recent three months would ease to a little more than 150,000 — the smallest since the start of 2021. The jobless rate probably edged down in August, to 4.2% from 4.3%.
