Opening Comment — Friday, September 05, 2025
DJIA: 45,621.29, up 350.06
S&P 500: 6,502.08, up 53.82
NASDAQ: 21,707.69, up 209.96
Stocks mixed ahead of jobs report
Stock futures are mixed Friday morning as investors are looking forward to today’s release of the August jobs report. As of 7:17 AM ET, the Dow is decreasing 0.1%, while the S&P 500 is up 0.2%. The Nasdaq 100 is increasing 0.5% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were higher on Thursday as the ADP Employment Change Report showed private nonfarm payroll gains for August coming in lower than expected. In other labor market data, second-quarter nonfarm productivity was revised higher than projected and unit labor costs were revised lower than forecasted, while initial jobless claims picked up and continuing claims fell. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management’s services purchasing managers’ index for August rose further into expansionary territory than projected and the federal budget deficit came in higher than expected for July. The Dow was up 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.0%. The S&P 500 increased 0.8% with 10 of 11 sectors finishing in positive territory. The Consumer Discretionary sector was the top performer, rising 2.3%, while the Utilities sector was the bottom performer, falling 0.2%.
Technical analysis
As of midday Thursday, the S&P 500 Index is still in an uptrend, with support at the 50-day and 200-day moving averages (6341 and 5966, respectively) and resistance at 6508.
On the data front, August’s nonfarm payrolls are expected to expand by 75,000 versus the prior month’s 73,000, while manufacturing payrolls are projected to fall by 5,000 compared to the prior month’s decrease of 11,000. Average hourly earnings are projected to rise 0.3% month-over-month (MOM) and 3.8% year-over-year (YOY) for August, compared to the prior month’s increases of 0.3% and 3.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.3% in August from the prior month’s 4.2%, while the labor force participation rate is expected to remain steady at 62.2%.
Across the pond, European stocks are higher in mid-day trading as Germany’s July factory orders unexpectedly dropped by 2.9% MOM. The U.K.’s retail sales for July experienced a larger-than-expected increase of 0.6% MOM and a smaller-than-projected increase of 1.1% YOY following downward revisions to last month’s data. Meanwhile, the eurozone’s third reading of second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) showed expansion of 0.1% quarter-over-quarter (QOQ), unchanged from the prior reading, and 1.5% YOY, up from the prior reading of 1.4% YOY.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mostly higher as Japan’s composite leading index ticked up to 105.9 while the country’s labor cash earnings showed a greater-than-forecasted increase of 4.1% YOY and household spending picked up less than expected to 1.4% YOY.
In FOREX trading, the dollar is lower ahead of today’s jobs report.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 0.5% lower at $63.16/barrel amid concerns of higher supply.
In the metals complex, gold is little changed at $3,578.50/ounce.