S&P closes at record high as soft jobs report eases rate-hike concerns

S&P closes at record high as soft jobs report eases rate-hike concerns

By Chuck Mikolajczak and Shashwat Chauhan

Fri August 7, 2026  

Per today’s jobs report, the economy lost over 100,000 jobs, that is if you’re counting the 80,000 forecasted increase that didn’t happen and the 23,000 unexpected decrease that did. It was good news on the inflation front as providing more fodder to stall off a rate increase. The odds today of a September increase has fallen to 44% vs yesterday’s 55 vs last week’s 67. That’s a 35% decrease in a week.  

There is still optimism about a peace deal which is helping to bring crude down and the very strong Q2 is soothing nerves about the massive AI capex. 436 S&P companies have reported with 85.1% beating estimates, way above the 68% average since 1994.  The S&P reached a new record and weekly gains are 3.58% S&P, 5.19% Nasdaq, 2.96% Dow. Volume at 16.94 keep creeping closer to the 4-week average of 17.56 billion. 

DJ: 53,885.10  -464.02        NAS: 26,348.35  -15.09        S&P: 7,709.96  -13.59             8/6

DJ: 54,036.93  +151.83       NAS: 26,690.62  +342.26     S&P: 7,757.64  +47.68             8/7

Fri 8-7-26 4:25 pm S&P closes at record high as soft jobs report eases rate-hike concerns | Reuters