EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500 +0.50% (2,179.98); NASDAQ +0.59% (5,249.90); DJIA +0.51% (18,491.96)

This week’s reports:

August’s Unemployment Rate remained at July’s 4.9% after Non-farm Payrolls rose by 151K, short of a forecast of 180K and following July’s 275K gain. Labor Force Participation Rate remained unchanged at 62.8%.
August’s Average Weekly Hours fell to 34.3 from July’s 34.4. Average Hourly Earnings rose 0.1% from July’s +0.3%.
Q2 2016 Unit Labor Costs surged 4.3% from Q1’s +2.0%. Q2 2016 Non-farm Productivity fell 0.6% from Q1’s -0.5%.
July’s Personal Income rose 0.4% from June’s +0.3%. Personal Spending rose 0.3% from June’s +0.5%.
June’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices rose 5.1% y/y versus May’s +5.2% y/y.
July’s Pending Home Sales rose 1.3% from June’s -0.8%.
August’s Consumer Confidence jumped to 101.1 from July’s 96.7.
August’s Markit Manufacturing PMI fell to 52.0 from July’s 52.1.
August’s ISM Manufacturing fell to 49.4 from July’s 52.6.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending August 26th rose by 2K to 263K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending August 19th rose by 14K to 2,159K.

US stocks climbed as August payroll data signaled steady labor-market growth, though not enough to force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.