Wall Street falls the most since May after employers slash hiring and tariffs roll out
The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, its biggest decline since May 21 and its fourth straight loss. The index is also posted a 2.4% loss for the week, marking a sharp shift from last week's record-setting streak of gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 2.2%.
Worries on Wall Street about a weakening economy were heavily reinforced by the latest report on job growth in the U.S. Employers added just 73,000 jobs in July. That is sharply lower than economists expected. The Labor Department also reported that revisions shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls.
Markets also reacted to the latest
tariff news
. President Donald Trump announced tariff rates on dozens of countries and pushed back the scheduled effective date to Aug. 7, adding more uncertainty to the global trade picture.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
First Merchants Second Quarter 2025 Earnings: EPS Beats Expectations, Revenues Lag
First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Second Quarter 2025 Results Key Financial Results Revenue: US$158.7m (up 17% from 2Q 2024). Net income: US$56.4m (up 43% from 2Q 2024). Profit margin: 36% (up from 29% in 2Q 2024). The increase in margin was driven by higher revenue. EPS: US$0.98 (up from US$0.68 in 2Q 2024). AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10bn in marketcap - there is still time to get in early. All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period First Merchants EPS Beats Expectations, Revenues Fall Short Revenue missed analyst estimates by 1.1%. Earnings per share (EPS) exceeded analyst estimates by 3.7%. Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 6.6% p.a. on average during the next 2 years, compared to a 7.6% growth forecast for the Banks industry in the US. Performance of the American Banks industry. The company's shares are down 6.8% from a week ago. Risk Analysis Before we wrap up, we've discovered 1 warning sign for First Merchants that you should be aware of. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ocugen Second Quarter 2025 Earnings: Beats Expectations
Ocugen (NASDAQ:OCGN) Second Quarter 2025 Results Key Financial Results Revenue: US$1.37m (up 20% from 2Q 2024). Net loss: US$14.7m (loss narrowed by 3.5% from 2Q 2024). US$0.05 loss per share (improved from US$0.059 loss in 2Q 2024). This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality. All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period Ocugen Revenues and Earnings Beat Expectations Revenue exceeded analyst estimates significantly. Earnings per share (EPS) also surpassed analyst estimates by 12%. Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 71% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 18% growth forecast for the Biotechs industry in the US. Performance of the American Biotechs industry. The company's shares are down 8.8% from a week ago. Risk Analysis It's necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Ocugen (at least 1 which is a bit concerning), and understanding them should be part of your investment process. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Don't blame Jerome Powell — or the Fed — if you can't afford to buy a house right now
Has Trump got the wrong guy? President Donald Trump has cast Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's reluctance to lower interest rates as the biggest obstacle to aspiring home buyers. 'I told him that wouldn't fly': My 90-year-old mother's adviser pushed her to change her beneficiaries. What is going on? Bonds and the dollar are sounding the alarm about the U.S. economy. Stock investors might want to heed the warning. Older adults on 'edge of poverty' lose jobs and funding as new Medicaid and SNAP work requirements loom Shop Top Mortgage Rates A quicker path to financial freedom Your Path to Homeownership Personalized rates in minutes 'People aren't able to buy a house because this guy is a numbskull,' Trump said of Powell ahead of Wednesday's Fed policy meeting, where the central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged despite pressure from Trump to cut borrowing costs. Trump has said repeatedly that high interest rates are blocking Americans from buying houses. But Powell is not the main reason so few people can afford to buy a home right now, experts told MarketWatch. With so little supply, home prices have shot up to all-time highs. The market is too expensive for both renters trying to buy their first homes and repeat buyers who want to upgrade or downsize. And many of those existing homeowners can't afford to let go of their low mortgage rates, fueling the so-called lock-in effect. Yes, elevated mortgage rates are part of the reason buying a home is unaffordable for so many. Most people in the U.S. take out a mortgage when they buy a house. In 2024, 91% of first-time buyers financed their home with a mortgage, according to the National Association of Realtors. For those people, higher mortgage rates have been a barrier. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.72% as of July 31, according to Freddie Mac. The 30-year rate has been in this range for a while, hovering above 6% for most of the last three years. That's a big jump from years past. A home buyer purchasing a $400,000 home with a 15% down payment and a 30-year mortgage rate of 3% — a common rate during the pandemic — would pay about $2,000 per month. With a 7% mortgage rate, that monthly payment would be nearly $2,800. Trump has repeatedly singled out Powell, saying in a July 18 Truth Social post that Powell and the Fed 'are choking out the housing market with their high rate, making it difficult for people, especially the young, to buy a house.' A week later, the president said that housing in the U.S. was 'lagging because Jerome 'Too Late' Powell refuses to lower Interest Rates.' But mortgage rates don't directly follow the direction of the Fed's benchmark short-term interest rate. Instead, they tend to move in tandem with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y, which typically rises when investors see inflation ahead. When the 10-year yield rises, so does the 30-year mortgage rate. However, the timing of Powell's decision to raise interest rates from pandemic-era lows did contribute to housing-affordability challenges by making mortgage rates more volatile, said Michael Fratantoni, the chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry trade group. 'The Federal Reserve was late to increase rates in 2022,' Fratantoni told MarketWatch. 'If they had moved more quickly, they likely would not have needed to raise rates to the same extent. So there is some culpability for the extent of rate volatility we experienced.' See also: Asked at this week's Fed policy meeting about 7% mortgage rates and housing affordability, Powell said he doesn't believe the Fed plays the central role in those issues. 'We don't set mortgage rates at the Fed,' Powell said in response to a question during the Wednesday press conference. 'It's not that we don't have any effect. We do have an effect. But we're not the main effect.' The current housing-affordability crisis is more about the 'long-term housing shortage that we have,' Powell added. 'We haven't built enough housing. This is not something the Fed can help with. And that'll be the case even after things normalize.' 'So I think the best thing that we can do for housing is to have 2% inflation and maximum employment. And that's what we can contribute to housing,' Powell said. Some don't agree with that analysis. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, a Trump ally who has also repeatedly attacked Powell for not cutting interest rates, wrote on X in response to Powell's comment that 'The Fed has EVERYTHING to do with Housing.' The Fed has more impact on the housing market than its officials would like to think, said David Dworkin, president and chief executive of the National Housing Conference, a left-leaning nonprofit advocacy group. The Fed's interest-rate policy directly affects home builders' borrowing costs, which in turn affects how many new homes are built. The Fed's holdings of mortgage-backed securities also have an impact on mortgage rates. In theory, if the Fed buys up more mortgage-backed securities, that in turn could push mortgage rates down. But the Fed has not been doing this. It has been trying to trim its balance sheet by letting those securities mature and roll off. The reality is that lower mortgage rates wouldn't be enough to solve affordability issues, experts told MarketWatch. While lower rates might make it more affordable to buy a home with a mortgage, the housing market's affordability crisis is also fueled by high home prices. Those rising prices are driven by a mismatch between supply and demand. Even as home sales are running at the slowest pace in 30 years, home prices continue to reach record highs. The median price of an existing home sold this June was $435,300. Putting aside pandemic boom towns and the Sun Belt, where builders have been able to boost construction of new homes, most markets are still undersupplied. The pace of home building is still far below where it was two decades ago, prior to the Great Recession, and has not recovered fully. That's in spite of demand skyrocketing over the years across most markets. Even current homeowners, who have benefited from significant home-price appreciation, face a tough market. Many bought their homes when both mortgage rates and home prices were significantly lower. To sell now would mean confronting a market that has become much more expensive — and that doesn't incentivize them to move. Hence, 'rate cuts alone aren't enough,' Amy Nixon, a housing economist and a contributor at MacroEdge Research, noted in a post on X. 'We need lower prices and consistently higher wages,' she wrote. 'Some regions still need more inventory too.' For a typical house to become affordable to a buyer, the 30-year mortgage rate would need to drop to an 'unrealistic' 4.43%, according to a recent report by the real-estate platform Zillow ZG. The last time the 30-year rate was at that level was in March 2022. In response to a request for comment, a White House spokesperson said the Trump administration's efforts to address housing affordability aren't focused only on interest rates. 'The Trump administration's push to restore the American Dream of homeownership goes beyond interest rates,' spokesperson Kush Desai told MarketWatch. 'Rapid deregulation to expand new home construction, historic working-class tax relief through The One Big Beautiful Bill, and America First trade deals that level the playing field for American workers reflect the Administration's two-pronged approach of cutting costs while raising wages for everyday Americans.' The other option to make housing more affordable is for home prices to fall. But that's equally unrealistic, according to Zillow. 'If rates and other factors held steady, home values would need to drop 18% for the typical home to be affordable for a median-income family,' the company said. And falling home prices is not necessarily a positive trend. 'The bulk of people in the U.S. don't have massive equity-market portfolios,' James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, previously told MarketWatch. 'The bulk of people's wealth is overwhelmingly in their property and their pension fund as well.' Most middle-income families pay more attention to the value of their home than the value of their stock-market portfolio, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics MCO, told MarketWatch. So when home prices fall or are poised to fall, Knightley said, 'I am a little bit nervous' that those declines could negatively hurt consumers' outlook regarding the economy and their interest in spending. And that could start to weigh down the U.S. economy. 'We need a multifaceted all-of-government approach to addressing a housing-affordability crisis, which has become mainstreamed across America,' Dworkin said. 'We need to build more housing, and we need to build housing that's affordable to first-time homebuyers. But we need to do it in a way that doesn't depreciate home prices.' Two bills recently introduced in Congress seek to address housing affordability. One would eliminate capital-gains taxes on home sales; another would try to boost new-home construction by cutting red tape. 'We didn't get into this because of one policy, and we're not going to get out of this because of one policy,' Dworkin added. Read more: Republicans and Democrats are joining forces to fix America's housing affordability crisis. Here's what's in their plan. So what could Powell do at this point to address the stagnant housing market? 'At this point, it would be best for housing markets if the Fed meets their mandates: conducting monetary policy in a manner that results in price stability and maximum employment,' the MBA's Fratantoni said. 'If the Fed gets monetary policy right over time, longer-term rates like mortgage rates will be lower and more stable on average,' he added. And 'that would benefit housing affordability.' Jim Bullard, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, told MarketWatch in an April interview that he was 'a little bit pessimistic about housing.' 'I think it has gotten quite a ways away from a steady state. And it's going to take a long time [to fix because] it's a slow-moving market. We just didn't build enough houses after the global financial crisis,' he said. 'It is going to take a long time to come back into equilibrium.' What personal-finance issues would you like to see covered in MarketWatch? We would like to hear from readers about their financial decisions and money-related questions. You can fill out or write to us at . A reporter may be in touch to learn more. MarketWatch will not attribute your answers to you by name without your permission. 'I have never been asked for money before': My friend wants to borrow $1,600 to pay her rent. Do I say yes? I'm trustee of $65,000 going to my nephew. What are the rules for what I can do with the money? This trader is sounding the alarm over stocks. Why he's pressing the sell button now. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
