Sub-Par Job Gains May Stifle Indexes

As another month nears its end we get another round of job reports from official sources. As many investors know, job reports are one of the more vital and more telling metrics that impact the stock market. Unfortunately, we’ve been going through an employment crisis recently, with severely underwhelming job reports. September was no different, indicating that the job crisis is far from ending. Unfortunately, that also means a slump for indexes, as is always the case with underwhelming job gain data.

Economists polled by FactSet predicted that around 479,000 jobs would be opened during September. Unfortunately, the reality was much different, with the actual number being less than half of the prediction. Namely, Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed us that employers only opened 194,000 positions. That’s the worst showing from December last year when mass firings occurred across the country. The results are especially disappointing since this was when people were expecting an upwards momentum of hiring. 

Luckily for investors, indexes seem to be holding strong in premarket trading. Naturally, that doesn’t guarantee that they remain at the same spot once the markets open. It’s quite likely that the major US indexes will see some sort of slump, as is tradition with poor job data. Global indices also often seem to follow the US, dropping at similar times. As such, the week’s close and next week’s start may be difficult for index investors.

With some good news, gold futures seem to be trading higher Friday morning. That may be indicative of traders and investors stocking up to prepare for a drop in index value across the board. That follow’s gold’s growth on previous days as well, marking a positive week for the precious metal. As the pandemic keeps stifling the economy, many economists seem overly optimistic about its end.