Stocks were choppy Tuesday with the main market indexes eventually settling in positive territory. Today’s upside came as the latest jobs data lifted expectations for a September rate cut, while investors also combed through a fresh batch of corporate news.
Starting with the jobs data. Shortly after the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said job openings fell to a three-year low of 8.1 million in April, below the 8.35 million economists were expecting. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, also showed hires and separations ticked higher to start the second quarter, to 5.64 million and 5.37 million, respectively.
“The rate of job openings as a share of all jobs continues to creep down, in a sign of a slightly less-tight labor market,” says Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet. “Along with the rate of job openings per unemployed worker reaching pre-pandemic range, today’s release is indicative of labor supply and demand moving into better balance.”
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Signs the red-hot labor market is cooling lifted expectations that the Federal Reserve will issue its first quarter-point rate cut in September. According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the probability of this occurring rose to 56% following the release of the JOLTS survey from yesterday’s odds of 51%.
Bath & Body Works logs worst day in three years after earnings
In single-stock news, Bath & Body Works (BBWI) was the worst S&P 500 stock today, tumbling 12.8% after the body care retailer reported earnings. This marked the retail stock’s biggest one-day decline since January 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
In its fiscal first quarter, Bath & Body Works said earnings were up 15% year-over-year to 38 cents per share while revenue slipped 0.9% to $1.38 billion, with both figures beating analysts’ estimates. However, the company’s second-quarter earnings guidance fell short.
Carnival stock leads S&P 500 gainers
At the other end of the spectrum was Carnival (CCL), which popped 5.8% to make it the best S&P 500 stock of the day. Boosting the cruise stock was news the company will fold its Australian operations into its Carnival Cruise Line.
“This change is the latest in a series of strategic moves designed to increase guest capacity for Carnival Cruise Line, the company’s flagship brand and the highest-returning brand in Carnival Corporation’s global portfolio,” the company said in a press release.
CCL’s rally had a halo effect on fellow cruise stocks Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH, +4.0%) and Royal Caribbean (RCL, +2.8%), which both finished the day with notable gains.
GameStop retreats after Roaring Kitty rumors
Elsewhere, GameStop (GME) gave back some of Monday’s big gains, shedding 5.4%. The decline came after a report in The Wall Street Journal suggested Morgan Stanley‘s E*Trade is considering booting Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty,” off its trading platform. A Massachusetts securities regulator is also said to be looking into Gill’s trading activities.
Gill and his fellow members of Reddit’s WallStreetBets are often cited for sparking the massive short squeeze in early 2021 that sparked volatile trading in several highly shorted stocks. He is also credited for triggering the latest round of meme stock madness after a cryptic mid-May post on X – the first on Gill’s account in three years.
As for the main indexes, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 5,291, the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% to 16,857, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 38,711.
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