Stocks Down On Friday, But Up For The Week; Q3 Earnings Season Begins

Plus 5 New Strong Buys for Today Stocks Down On Friday, But Up For The Week; Q3 Earnings Season Begins [Kevin Matras - EVP - Photo] Profit from the Pros By Kevin Matras Executive Vice President Stocks Down On Friday, But Up For The Week; Q3 Earnings Season Begins [Stocks Down On Friday, But Up For The Week; Q3 Earnings Season Begins]Image: Bigstock Stocks closed lower on Friday, but higher for the week. The main topic on Friday was the worse than expected Employment Situation report. This truly was a surprise. Especially after the ADP report earlier in the week reported 586,000 new private payroll jobs. Instead, the employment report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) came in at 194,000 (317,000 in the private sector and -123,000 in the public sector) vs. the consensus for 475,000 (445,000 in the private sector and 30,000 in the public). The unemployment rate dipped more than expected from 5.2% to 4.8%, coming in lower than the estimate for 5.1%. But the participation rate slipped to 61.6% from last month's 61.7% and views for the same. Although, on a positive note, last month's reported 235,000 new jobs was upwardly revised to 366,000. Also on a positive note, the private sector jobs totaling 317K was better than what the headline number of 194K suggests. It still missed the estimate. But the drop in public sector jobs was the bigger drain on the aggregate number. And likely why the market held up so well. As for where the job gains came from: Leisure & Hospitality accounted for 74,000 new jobs; Professional & Business Services added 60,000; Retail Trade was up 56,000; Transportation & Warehousing increased by 47,000; the Information industry was up 32,000 (which includes 14K in motion picture and sound recording, 11K in publishing, and 6K in data processing); Social Assistance jobs were up 30,000; Manufacturing was up 26,000; Construction was up 22,000; Wholesale Trade was up 17,000; and Mining was up 5,000. Job losses of -144,000 were seen in Local Government Education; a loss of -17,000 in State Government Education; and down -19,000 in Private Education. Historically, September is usually a big month for job gains in education. So September's losses rather than the typical gains was unusual. Although, it really wasn't that much of a surprise for anybody paying attention to the news regarding education. The Health Care industry also saw job losses of -18,000. So what does all this mean? In spite of the disappointing miss, the economy continues to recover. October is expected to be better for jobs. (I wouldn't be surprised to see September's tally upwardly revised next month, just like August's was this month.) With Covid cases falling, that will bring more people into the workforce. And if any of the proposed stimulus bills get passed (infrastructure and/or reconciliation), we're talking about trillions of additional dollars getting pumped into the economy which will increase economic activity and hiring. That means, for the economy and the market, it looks like there's a lot more upside to go. BTW, now that the jobs report is behind us, the market will turn its focus to Q3 earnings season which 'officially' begins this week. And since stocks typically go up during earnings season, we could be in store for some exciting weeks ahead. See you tomorrow, [Kevin Matras - Signature] Kevin Matras Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research Sponsor [7 Best to Buy and Hold Forever]( Have you ever passed over a company and later regretted not buying it? MarketBeat has identified 7 stocks that appear to be nothing special at first glance but have truly incredible long-term prospects. 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