CLOSING BELL
JK, Jobs Market Sucks Actually

Markets fell on Friday, driven by fresh tariff threats and Mag Seven earnings that failed to excite investors enough to push prices past all-time highs. Huge drops in tech sent the Nasdaq lower, and yields fell in the short term.

Trump imposed the tariffs he had threatened since April, coming in a week: 10-41% tax rates on imports from dozens of nations. This could still look like a pause to some Investors, but overall, the market fell on the news. 35% Canadian levies start today, so order that maple syrup now if it’s sitting in your shopping cart. 👀

Today's issue covers: the jobs market sucks, actually, Amazon leads Friday earnings report reactions lower, and more. 📰

With the final numbers for indexes and the ETFs that track them, 3 of 11 sectors closed green, with health care $XLV ( ▲ 0.54% ) leading and discretionary $XLY ( ▼ 2.41% ) lagging.

S&P 500 $SPY ( ▼ 1.64% ) 6,238

Nasdaq 100 $QQQ ( ▼ 1.97% ) 22,763

Russell 2000 $IWM ( ▼ 2.04% ) 2,166

Dow Jones $DIA ( ▼ 1.27% ) 43,588

STOCKS
The Jobs Market Sucks, Actually 🦿 

The market sold off Friday, as investors watched an enormous cut to past job growth data. Remember the healthy job market in the spring? Well, according to BLS numbers, May and June together saw a 258,000 cut in previously reported job additions, with a three-year low of just 19k, and 14k jobs added. July numbers came in at 73k, but honestly, given how much earlier months got cut, you can expect these figures to fall too.

The data spells a pretty dramatic slowdown: the first four months of the year saw 600k jobs added to the labor market, and the past three months saw closer to 100k. The dollar fell, and the VIX volatility index shot higher.

Trump responded in a very on-brand way, with a statement that he would fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the ‘politicized’ data release. 😆 Trump also took aim at Jerome Powell and the FOMC.

Speaking of the FOMC, Fed Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler said she would resign next week, a couple of months early from her Jan 31 end of term. Kugler, a Biden appointee, was not present at this week’s FOMC meeting, where two Fed members expressed the first objection votes since the 70s.

These two Governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both said Friday they held their votes because they wanted a quarter-point cut, pointing to a PCE that came in at 2.1%, the weakening labor market, and arguing tariffs will only increase prices temporarily. 

Even If The FOMC Gets A Makeover, Will Rates Change?

In a hypothetical situation where Powell steps down before his term, and the White House fills Kugler’s empty seat soon, Trump’s pro-cutting lobby within the FOMC voting body would grow to four voices. Maybe there will be other voices to join in after the weak jobs data.

Fed Chair Michael Barr’s term ends one year from now in July, and even if he too leaves and the Senate fast-tracks an appointment, the FOMC would right now still see a majority with a wait-and-see approach on rates. 😦 

COMPANY NEWS
Amazon Leads The Way Lower For Friday Earnings Reactions

$AMZN ( ▼ 8.27% ) led the way for a lower market on Friday after the retail giants’ Thursday night report showed a Q2 profit and sales beat, but the forward-looking cloud business was not up to Street expectations.

Amazon said it was spending more than ever on CapEx to build cloud and AI tech, at a total $118B this year. Competitors are circling the cloud hosting waters, though, and Meta and Google are spending upwards of $72B and $85B so far this year.

And it’s paying off. Amazon’s AWS hosting service grew 18% year over year, just above estimates, but trailing growth compared with other Mag Seven cloud providers. Microsoft and Alphabet cloud revenue grew 39% and 32% in the same period.

Worse yet, Amazon projected operating income for AWS cloud in the current quarter at $15-$20.5B, but the street wanted to see at least $19.5B, and Amazon’s wide range was not close enough.

It wasn’t the only stock to fall after a beating report on Friday.

$CVX ( ▼ 0.16% ) fell after the oil baron posted better-than-expected Q2 adjusted EPS, but said lower oil prices hurt its bottom line. Its production business logged a profit of $2.73 billion, down from $4.47 billion last year.

$XOM ( ▼ 1.79% ) fell after reporting the same result, falling earnings 23% from a year earlier on lower oil prices, even with an overall profit beat.

$F ( ▼ 2.26% ) fell slightly after a 9.3% YoY sales jump driven by hybrids and internal combustion engines. The car-making giant warned that the rest of the year would not look as hot: Ford is predicting up to $2B in a profit hit from import tariffs on raw materials like aluminum, even though it makes a lot of its components in the U.S. 😅 

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POPS & DROPS
Top Stocktwits News Stories 🗞️ 

Reddit surged over 20% after a Q2 “mind-blowing beat,” with ad revenue up 78% YoY and retail sentiment hitting “extremely bullish” levels. Read more

Moderna fell after CEO Stéphane Bancel attributed the company's lowered full-year revenue forecast to shipment timing, despite a Q2 double beat and surging retail sentiment. Read more

Tesla was ordered to pay $329M in damages after a jury ruled its Autopilot system partly responsible for a fatal 2019 crash, shifting retail sentiment from “extremely bullish” to merely “bullish.” Read more

The White House will continue its trade strategy even if courts reject its sweeping tariffs, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Read more

The NFL will hand over RedZone, NFL Network, and other top media assets to Disney in exchange for an equity stake in ESPN, pending regulatory approval. Read more

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stocks rallied on reports the Trump administration may test Medicare and Medicaid coverage for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro. Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is open to larger AI acquisitions to accelerate its roadmap, marking a major strategic shift amid surging retail sentiment. Read more

Xbox Game Pass hit nearly $5 billion in annual revenue as Microsoft touts 500 million monthly active users and surging retail sentiment. Read more

Don’t miss a story! Follow @StocktwitsNews for a live feed in real time. ✍️ 

Links That Don’t Suck 🌐

👀 Bessent says U.S. has 'makings of a deal' with China

📺️ Trump Unleashes Massive Tariffs on Swiss Watches, Pharma Firms

⚠️ President Trump fires BLS commissioner after July jobs report disappoints

😨 A backlog at the Commerce Dept. is reportedly stalling Nvidia’s H20 chip licenses

🏠️ 'A gamechanger': Economists react to weak July jobs report as rate cut bets surge

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