The three major New York stock indexes opened mixed after August nonfarm payrolls far exceeded market expectations.
As of 9:30 a.m. on the 4th (local time) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 137.32 points, or 0.26%, at 53,548.79. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 was down 6.41 points, or 0.08%, at 7,741.30, while the Nasdaq composite was up 16.80 points, or 0.06%, at 26,600.86.
The August nonfarm payrolls released that day far beat market expectations. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, August nonfarm institutional sector employment increased by 162,000 from the previous month. That is more than 100,000 above the market estimate of 56,000. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, the same as the prior month.
With employment rising more strongly than expected, caution grew over the possibility of a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike.
According to CME FedWatch, the federal funds futures market priced the probability of a rate hike this month at 58.2%. That was up 8.8 percentage points from the previous session.
Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said, "While the stronger-than-expected jobs report is likely to raise concerns about a rate hike, the actual outcome depends on next week's inflation data."
She added, "If the inflation reading comes in lower than expected, the Fed is likely to decide it does not need to heavily weigh potentially inflationary signals emerging in the labor market."
By sector, technology and industrials gained, while the rest fell across the board.
Among individual stocks, movie theater operator AMC Entertainment rose 3.94%. Shares climbed after Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron sharply criticized Robinhood's tokenization of stocks including AMC. Aron called the practice "contemptible, absurd and vile."
Credit reporting firms Equifax and TransUnion plunged 8.76% and 9.61%, respectively. The drop was attributed to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director General Bill Pulte saying on X that the two companies "have been charging Americans excessive fees for far too long, and that will soon end."
Adobe fell 6.55% after it said longtime Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen will hand over control to an internal executive, Anil Chakravarthy.
International oil prices were lower. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October 2026 delivery was down 1.22% at $90.19 a barrel in trading.