Quote of the week
““Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted””
June's Job Report
The labor market added 209,000 jobs in June, 31,000 less than expected. According to the WSJ, this is the first time the number has missed expectations in more than a year. Even so, average hourly earnings rose 0.4% from May, more than what economists had expected. The unemployment rate declined from 3.7 in May to 3.6 in June. While employers added fewer jobs than expected, the wage growth number will certainly play a role during the next Federal Reserve meeting. Good news for the economy is currently bad news for the Fed and the markets. Right now, CME Group has the probability of the Fed raising rates by 0.25% during the July 26 meeting at 84.9%
ISM Services Index Increases in June
The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index rose to 53.9 last month, easily beating the expected 51.2. In contrast, the institute's manufacturing index that focuses on goods came in at 46. Any level over 50 signals an expansion, while levels below 50 signal a contraction. The reporting shows a bifurcated economy, with the services sector carrying the weight. Meanwhile, the index focusing on goods has been in contraction territory for eight straight months.
Meta Unveils Threads
Wednesday night, Facebook's parent company, Meta, unveiled its version of Twitter. Threads will attempt to steal some market share away from Twitter in the social media landscape. This move by Meta isn't the first the company tried to duplicate a competitor's success. In 2016, Instagram released "Stories", a feature that resembled what Snapchat was offering users on its platforms. The stories feature has since migrated over to the Facebook platform. Threads had 30 million signups during the first 24 hours and currently is only formatted for mobile use.
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