Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
After some hopeful data the previous few months, the labor data this month returned to the “fits and starts” mantra.  According to the govt, 162K jobs were created – well below expectations. Prior months were revised down as well. The unemployment rate did fall to 7.4% as the labor force participation rate dropped 0.1% to 63.4%. Earnings also declined by 0.1 after some nice gains in prior months. Food services and retail dominated the job growth… again. Overall more or less the same stuff we’ve seen for 3-4 years. Full report here.
- Retail trade added 47,000 jobs. In July, job growth occurred in general merchandise stores (+9,000), motor vehicle and parts dealers (+6,000), building material and garden supply stores (+6,000), and health and personal care stores (+5,000).
- Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places increased by 38,000 in July .
As for the market the psychological 1700 was finally broken yesterday on the S&P 500. It was a gap up with no real pullback all session. For now it appears this is a new leg up.
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