Gas prices take a hit after Hurricane Ida slams offshore oil and gas hub
The S&P 500 reached new all-time highs once again despite a monthly U.S. jobs report that fell well short of expectations.
The S&P 500 finished out August up 2.9% for the month, its seventh consecutive month of gains. September has historically been the worst month of the year for the S&P 500, including a nearly 10% pullback in September of last year.
On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported the economy added just 235,000 jobs in the month of August, missing economist estimates of 720,000 jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate fell from 5.4% to 5.2%, while wages were up 4.3% from a year ago.
Oil, natural gas and gasoline prices finished the week sharply higher after Hurricane Ida slammed an important offshore oil and gas hub in Louisiana on Sunday night. As of Friday, an estimated 1.7 million barrels per day of oil production remained shut down following the storm.
Bitcoin prices once again topped $50,000 on Friday as the popular cryptocurrency continued its volatile trading. Bitcoin prices hit an all-time high of above $64,000 in April before dropping all the way back down below $30,000 in June.
Eagle’s wings clipped
American Eagle’s stock dropped more than 16% after the company reported disappointing second-quarter revenue and decelerating online sales growth.
This week, investors will be watching earnings reports from UiPath on Tuesday, GameStop on Wednesday, Affirm on Thursday and Kroger on Friday.
At least 220 S&P 500 companies have mentioned the term “inflation” at least once in their second-quarter earnings calls, according to FactSet.
Economic numbers
Following the disappointing U.S. jobs report, Wall Street will get economic updates from Europe on Tuesday when Eurostat releases its second-quarter Eurozone GDP growth estimate and on Thursday when the European Central Bank releases its latest interest rate decision and accompanying monetary policy statement.
Benzinga is a financial news and data company headquartered in Detroit.
Text source: MCC.EXCHANGE
