Stock Market Live September 4: S&P 500 (VOO) Rises On Weak Jobs Numbers
Key Points
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ADP reported weak private employer jobs growth in August — 54,000 net new positions.
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Last week’s unemployment report was also disappointing, with new claims rising to 237,000.
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Thursday Wrap-up
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed at 596.65 Thursday, up 0.8%.
Time for Another Bite of Apple?
MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett upgraded Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL | AMD Price Prediction) to neutral, removing his sell rating on the tech stock. “For most of this year, we’ve felt that Apple shares simply didn’t reflect what we considered to be a litany of real and imminent risks. Apple Intelligence was mostly a dud; certainly not a catalyst for a ‘Super Cycle’ of iPhone upgrades,” said the analyst.
These and other concerns put 20% of Apple’s operating profit at risk. Today, however, “the worst-case scenarios are off the table” and negative catalysts seem few enough that Moffett is willing to entertain the idea of buying back in at some point.
Not all investors are convinced, however, and Apple stock is down 0.6% despite the upgrade. The Voo, meanwhile, has given up most of its gains today and is basically flat against Tuesday.
Anti-AMD
Seaport Global Securities analyst Jay Goldberg downgraded AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) to neutral this morning, warning that AMD is “experiencing slowing progress with its AI accelerator business” and having to resort to “use of discounts and other support mechanisms” to get customers to choose its offerings over chips from Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA).
Seaport is lowering its estimates as a result, and pulling its buy rating on the stock.
America's Car-Crash
Just one more hot earnings take from this morning: used car dealer America’s Car-Mart (Nasdaq: CRMT) is getting destroyed — down more than 18% — after reporting a loss when Wall Street expected a profit. America’s Car-Mart was predicted to report $0.83 per share for its fiscal Q1 2026 earnings this morning, but instead reported a $0.69 per share loss. Sales missed estimates as well, at just $341.3 million.
The Voo, however, is now up 0.2%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is shrugging off a disappointing August employment report from ADP, and rising 0.1% in premarket today.
As CNBC reports, ADP’s private payrolls report issued this morning shows that private employers added 54,000 net new jobs last month, about one-third worse than the 75,000 positions economists had predicted, and barely half the 106,000 jobs added in July. This is bad news for the economy, but arguably good news for stock traders hoping to see the Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate at the FOMC meeting two weeks from now. And because rate cuts are generally considered “good” for making the stock market rise, investors don’t seem too upset by today’s bad employment news.
(Adding to the bad news-is-good news toll, the Labor Department reports initial unemployment claims for the week ended August 30 were 237,000, higher than the 230,000 that economists had predicted).
Oh, and speaking of job losses… ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) just announced it will lay off up to 25% of its workforce over the next year, aiming to cut costs in a market where oil prices are slipping.
Earnings
In earnings news, S&P 500 component company Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) beat earnings by two cents last night, reporting a $0.44 per share fiscal Q3 profit on $9.1 billion in revenue (which was also ahead of estimates).
HPE did warn that fiscal Q4 2025 earnings will come in light, between $0.56 and $0.60 per share, but investors don’t seem worried. The stock is up more than 5% premarket.
American Eagle (NYSE: AEO) also beat earnings last night. Reporting $0.45 per share in profit, the company more than doubled analyst predictions for $0.20, and revenue was about $50 million more than predicted at $1.3 billion. The Eagle’s stock is predictably soaring — up more than 28% premarket.
Finally, communications equipment maker Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN) beat by $0.14 this morning, reporting a $0.53 per share profit for its own fiscal Q3. Again, revenue was $50 million more than consensus, this time at $1.2 billion. And Ciena stock is up nearly 22%.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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