Stocks recover in wake of strong NFPs

The US continues to claw back lost jobs, adding 1.7 million in July, and helping stocks to edge higher as the week begins to wind down.
 

• Non-farms report banishes memories of Wednesday’s ADP miss
• Focus now on stalling consumer activity
• Rightmove sees remarkable recovery in traffic

US stocks are clawing back early losses while European indices are making some headway in the wake of a positive jobs report. The president’s ‘crystal ball’ proved to be correct, perhaps unsurprisingly, and the headline non-farms figure beat forecasts, knocking the ADP miss out of investors’ minds. Wages also rose, and the unemployment rate dropped. All this is welcome, but the US economy has much further to go before it makes a full recovery, and with other measures such as small business activity and credit card spending plateauing investors know that there is much more work to be done. At least things aren’t getting much worse however, and the focus on both sides of the Atlantic will remain on how to move back to a more normal mode of life, which is still the most important thing for financial markets.

For practically every firm, survival is the main focus at present. Rightmove is no exception, and while the decision to cut fees hit performance, it did ensure that only a small fraction of members were lost. A remarkable rebound in activity has also given investors reason for cheer, and they will be content to forgo their dividends for the time being. Of course, much remains uncertain, but Rightmove seems to be making all the right moves for the time being.