US stocks are expected to face a volatile week as Wall Street awaits a key government jobs report expected to show unemployment at elevated levels.
The US government will release the employment report for last month on Friday, with most analysts expecting last month’s non-farm payrolls to fall by 87,000 and the unemployment rate to edge up to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent at present.
“With a lot of expectations riding on the employment data, it would not be a surprise to see the market trade in a choppy manner leading up to its release,” analysts at Briefing.com said in a report.
Unemployment remains the biggest concern of US President Barack Obama, who is facing an uphill battle to lift the fortunes of his Democratic Party in congressional elections in November.
The latest government data on Friday showed the economic growth rate easing to 2.4 percent in the second quarter from a revised 3.7 percent in the first three months of the year, stoking fears that recovery from recession is losing steam.
Over the week, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to end Friday at 10,465.94.
The information technology-rich NASDAQ composite index fell 0.7 percent to 2,254.70, while the broader S&P 500 index slipped 0.1 percent to 1,101.60.
But the indexes put up a superb performance last month, with the Dow skyrocketing 7.1 percent — its heftiest monthly gain in a year, the NASDAQ index up 6.9 percent and the S&P 500 also adding 6.9 percent — its best monthly rally since July last year.
EARNINGS
Second-quarter company earnings news and economic data are expected to continue moving the market in the week ahead.
“Indicators next week will confirm that the economy started the third quarter with further diminished momentum,” IHS Global Insight economists said in a report.
Aside from the employment data, the closely followed ISM manufacturing index is expected to slide down slightly, while the ISM services index may remain unchanged for July, they said.
Construction spending is also expected to end the second quarter on a downbeat note while real consumer spending just barely chinned the bar in June.
“Recoveries going forward will likely be jobless and we will need a longer, broader based expansion before job growth accelerates sharply,” chief economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors said.
“It is doubtful that business and residential investment, state and local spending and inventory rebuilding will continue to be as robust as they were in the spring,” he said, forecasting third-quarter growth at below 2 percent.
RECESSION
Government revisions on previous quarter GDP data showed on Friday that the recession that struck in December 2007 was deeper than previously thought, with the worst economic contraction at 6.8 percent in the final quarter of 2008.
Obama admitted more work needs to be done, but stressed the economy was on the right path, pointing to four consecutive quarters of growth.
“Our economy is growing again instead of shrinking. And that’s a welcome sign compared to where we were,” he said on Friday.
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS