In August, the employment rate in the United States saw a smaller growth than expected. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 142,000 in August, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast 160,000 new jobs in August.

At the same time, the unemployment rate decreased to 4.2 percent. A September 6 report from the US government's Labor Department also showed steady wage growth in August, which should boost consumer spending, keeping the economy out of recession for now. However, it is a fact that the dynamics of the labor market has slowed down. According to the report, 86,000 fewer new jobs were created in the United States in June and July than previously reported.

US Federal Reserve officials have hinted they are ready to start a series of refinancing rate cuts at the US central bank's meeting in two weeks, citing a weakening labor market that could lead to more serious consequences if there is no policy change.

Their comments were seen as an endorsement of the Federal Reserve cutting the refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage points, leaving the door open for further, perhaps larger, moves if the labor market continues to slow.

The Federal Reserve has kept the refinancing rate in its current range of 5.25-5.5 percent since July of last year, after nearly a year and a half of raising interest rates continuously to counter inflation.

Wall Street's three main indexes rose more than 1 percent on Monday, September 9. The Dow Jones industrial index started the day with an increase of 1.20%, the S&P 500 with an increase of 1.16% and the Nasdaq Composite with an increase of 1.16%. This is explained by the fact that after last week's massive sell-off in securities, investors are looking for bargains, as well as awaiting the release of inflation reports in the coming days and the Federal Reserve's decision on a possible reduction in the refinancing rate expected next week.

Investors shied away from stocks last week as labor market data came in worse than expected in August, ahead of less optimistic manufacturing data. This resulted in the biggest weekly decline for the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) since January 2022 and the biggest weekly decline for the S&P 500 (.SPX) since March 2023.

Apple shares fell after the presentation of iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4. Shares of the tech giant fell nearly 1%, while the S&P 500 rose nearly 1%. Apple's share price has fallen along with other tech companies in recent days, though it is up more than 10% this year.

Historically, on the day of the iPhone presentation, Apple's shares usually lag behind the stock market, Morgan Stanley analysts write. Still, analysts are confident that Apple's stock price will rise "as the release of the iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence will help boost currently subdued demand."

Apple's AI update cycle may be the biggest in the company's history. The stock price could rise if the first iPhone, which is specially designed to meet the requirements of Apple Intelligence, becomes the biggest refresh cycle in Cupertino's history, as Wedbush analysts predicted over the weekend.

Around 300 million iPhones worldwide have not been updated in more than four years, which Wedbush estimates could mean more than 240 million iPhones sold globally in 2025.

Palantir's stock price rose 13% to a record high after it announced that the company would soon be included in the S&P 500. During the trading day on September 9, Palantir's stock price reached $34.13, the highest since February 2021. The software company with a market value of about $75 billion, whose largest customer is the US government, will replace American Airlines Group in the S&P 500 index, whose market value has fallen by 22% over the past year, reaching only $7 billion. The changes in the index will come into force on September 23.

Oracle ( ORCL ) shares rose 9% to $152.90 in extended trading Monday after the software giant reported fiscal first-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations and announced about new partnership with Amazon (AMZN).

Oracle said first-quarter profit rose 7% year-over-year to $13.3 billion, and earnings per share rose to $1.03 from 86 cents a year earlier.

Cloud services, Oracle's biggest business, drove a 21% rise in the company's profit to $5.6 billion, as the company said demand for training large artificial intelligence language models in the cloud increased. Safra Katz, CEO of Oracle, announced that the company's revenues will grow in the 2025 fiscal year as a result of the implementation of a large number of signed contracts.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) revenue grew 45% year over year to $2.2 billion. The company has launched a new partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is expected to bring additional growth.

The US trade deficit widened in July, reaching the highest level in the last two years. According to the report published by the US Department of Commerce, the trade deficit in goods and services increased by 7.9 percent compared to June, amounting to 78.8 billion dollars.

This is due to the increase in the import of goods, as well as the efforts of the companies to ensure sufficient stocks before the possible strike of the dockers.

The value of imports of goods and services rose 2.1% to the highest level since March 2022. Exports increased by 0.5%.

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