Stocks opened higher this morning, following the release of August’s jobs report. Even though the report was underwhelming, investors and traders starting buying up stocks due to their belief that the weak employment data would prevent the Federal Reserve from applying the breaks to its monetary stimulus. However, those initial gains were quickly erased following comments from Russian president Vladimir Putin that suggested that Russia would aid Syria in the event of a strike by the United States. Nonetheless, stocks eventually bounced off their lows and the major indices were mostly unchanged by the close.
Stocks on the RiseAmerican Tower Corp (AMT
) shares rallied after the company announced a $4.8 billion acquisition of MIP Tower Holdings. Also rising today were shares of Timken Co (TKR), after the company announced that it will separate into two publicly-traded companies.
Furthermore, Wall Street analyst upgrades of Moody’s (MCO) and SunTrust banks (STI) helped push the stocks higher in the day’s trading session and a dividend increase announcement from Trinity Industries (TRN) caused the stock to rise. Walter Energy (WLT) and Extra Space Storage (EXR) were a few other strong performers on the day.
Among the stocks in negative territory today were The Gap (GPS), after reporting disappointing August sales, M&T Bank (MTB), following a Wall Street analyst downgrade, and Ford Motor Company (F).
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Jobs, the Fed, QE, and Dividend InvestorsThe big news on Wall Street this morning was August’s Non-Farm Payrolls jobs report, which showed that 169,000 new jobs were created in August and the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.3%. Seems great right? Well, not exactly. Actually, not at all. The jobs created failed to top economists’ expectations of 180,000 new jobs. Not only that, but June and July’s job numbers were revised down sharply. Also falling was the labor force participation rate, which was the primary reason why the unemployment rate dropped to 7.3% despite all of the negative underlying jobs data.
Top Cheap Stocks To Watch For 2014
Because of these disappointing numbers, many analysts and investors believe the Federal Reserve will be less likely to taper its bond buying stimulus this month or in the near future, as a less accommodative monetary policy would put the brakes on our already slow economic recovery. These expectations of continued monetary stimulus caused investors and traders to send stocks higher this morning, with bonds rising as well. However, I’m not sure that this continuance of QE-infinity will be the case; don’t be surprised if the Fed continues toward its path of a tighter monetary policy at its FOMC meeting in a week and a half.
What Dual Mandate?
This is because, historically, worrying about unemployment has not been the Federal Reserve’s main concern. Of the two pillars of its dual mandate, the Fed typically worries more about price stability, o
