The three major New York stock indexes were mixed as they digested the July nonfarm payrolls.
As of 9:36 a.m. on the 7th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52.15 points, or 0.10%, from the previous session to 53,832.95.
The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 rose 25.68 points, or 0.33%, to 7,735.64, while the Nasdaq composite gained 261.26 points, or 0.99%, to 26,609.61.
U.S. July nonfarm payrolls came in far below expectations. According to the Labor Department, July nonfarm institutional sector employment decreased by 23,000 from the previous month.
Considering the market forecast for an increase of 80,000, the gap amounts to 103,000. It is the first time since February that new U.S. nonfarm jobs have fallen.
Accordingly, expectations for a rate hike in September also receded. According to CME FedWatch, as of about 9:26 a.m. the federal funds rate (FFR) futures market reflected a 44.1% chance that the policy rate will be raised by September. That was down 10.9 percentage points from the previous day's 55.0%.
Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, said, "Despite the negative employment figures, the labor market is still healthy, but this gives the Fed room to pause in September."
Geopolitical tensions are rising again. With no agreement yet between the United States and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on this day attacked Najran, a border area in southern Saudi Arabia. Eleven civilians were injured, and it is unusual for so many civilians to be harmed by a Houthi attack.
European stocks, by contrast, all rose. The Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.60% from the previous session at 6,541.33 in transaction. France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX rose 0.41% and 0.89%, respectively, while Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.58%.
International oil prices fell. At the same time, front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September 2026 delivery was down 0.26% from the previous session at $77.09 a barrel.