The weak jobs report continues to loom in investors’ minds.
Markets are attempting to settle down as August trading settles in. But Friday’s surprisingly weak jobs report — which included 258,000 in downward revisions — has investors on edge.
Bets on a September interest rate cut are on the rise, and fears of a sharp economic slowdown this fall are front and center. Goldman Sachs economists are out today warning of very sluggish consumer spending into year-end.
Earnings continue to roll right along, with key results this week from momentum tech names in Palantir (PLTR) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Read more: Live coverage of corporate earnings
And Tesla (TSLA) said this morning in a new filing that it has granted CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares worth about $29 billion. The move is aimed at keeping the billionaire at the helm of Tesla until at least 2027. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the billionaire will likely stay at Tesla until 2030.
Despite the happenings, Trump tariff uncertainty remains at the heart of investor concerns. Former US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told me on Opening Bid (watch above) that tariffs will be the name of the game for the balance of the second Trump presidency.
Zoom-in: Wilbur Ross on BLS commissioner canning and a China trade deal
President Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday following a dismal July jobs report, which painted the US economy in a negative light. The president opined that the jobs data was “rigged” to make him look bad. McEntarfer was appointed in 2023 as the BLS commissioner by President Biden.
The sacking has set off debates on the Street ranging from the credibility of economic data to the absurdity of Trump’s move, given the rigid procedures behind government data collection.
“I think what is a little bit suspicious about the most recent BLS data is that [it] came out shortly after the … FOMC meeting, where Trump was hoping to get rates reduced,” Ross, who was the Commerce Secretary during Trump’s first term, said on Opening Bid. “Clearly, if the two big revisions had come out before the meeting, it would have been more likely that the FOMC would cut rates.”
“Remember, just before the presidential election, they also had two months of very good labor results,” he continued. “And then a day or two after the election, they made a massive correction in both months … as to whether the underlying data themselves are correct. I would really have no way to know.”
Ross called the claim that government economic data is rigged “just speculation” and said Trump never tried to influence data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which falls under the Department of Commerce, during his term.
On tariffs, Ross said Trump has made it clear that if other countries reduced tariffs on US exports, that would be taken into account in negotiations.
Ross went on to shed light on how the president is thinking about tariffs.
“So his target is really improving our balance of trade,” he said. “And that can either be done by holding back the trade of foreign countries through tariffs or by everybody cutting it together. So I think trade policy will continue to be a centerpiece of his administration. But that doesn’t mean everything will be increasing.”
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Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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