Traders Ready For Jobs

A flurry of data greets investors over the next few days, building up to Friday's highly anticipated jobs report from the Labor Department. Global growth concerns elicited a triple-digit downdraft at the week's outset, setting the stage for what should be an interesting beginning to September.

Comments from the Fed's last meeting undid a morning move into the green on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 settled flat hovering around 10,000 and 1,050 respectively, and the Nasdaq Composite slumped 0.3%. With August drawing to a close, major averages suffered their worst losses for that month since 2001; the Dow and S&P both fell over 4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 6%.

Technology's recent struggles are no more apparent than in Research in Motion (RIMM) whose shares lost over 25% of their value last month amid potential bans overseas due to security concerns and a highly competitive smart phone environment.

While information technology struggled, August was the month of the safe-haven trade. Treasurys, gold, and the yen all outperformed peer asset classes. Meanwhile, oil – trading in lock step with equities – slumped under $72 per barrel. Hurricane Earl may provide a temporary support level for oil prices around Labor Day, and fundamentals may not let the front-month crude contract drop below $70.

Before the FOMC minutes drew blood Tuesday afternoon, economic data temporarily helped stabilized stocks. Consumer confidence was the beneficiary of a dead cat bounce as the Conference Board's sentiment index rose 2.5 points to a reading of 53.5 for August. Sagging confidence, still down nearly 10 points from May despite the August improvement, has been a significant summer drag on stocks. Major indices firmed after the report, but unremitting dormancy in the jobs market is likely to keep confidence at the consumer level depressed.

It'll be a busy Wednesday morning with the release of August auto sales and ADP's employment forecast, followed by the ISM's August manufacturing index, July construction spending, and weekly oil inventories.

Thursday's session is packed as well including jobless claims, pending home sales, chain store sales, and factory orders. All will help direct market momentum, but the big one is the official employment report coming out on Friday.

STILL DUE UP THIS WEEK:

• WEDNESDAY – ISM Manufacturing Index (August), Motor Vehicle Sales (August), Construction Spending (July), Oil Inventories (Weekly), MBA Purchase Applications (Weekly), ADP Employment Forecast (August), earnings from Borders Group (BGP), Express (EXP), Collective Brands (PSS), H.J. Heinz (HNZ), Joy Global (JOYG)
• THURSDAY – Pending Home Sales (July), Jobless Claims (Weekly), Chain Store Sales (August), Factory Orders (July), Productivity and Costs (Q2), earnings from Take-Two Interactive (TTWO)
• FRIDAY – Employment Report (August), ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (August), earnings from Campbell Soup (CPB)