Nasdaq tumbles after US jobs data, Gazprom halt

Stocks turned to losses during the US session as the initial exuberance from the US jobs market data quickly faded due to some disturbing news from Russia. As of writing, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index traded 1.5% lower on the day, near yesterday’s lows at 12,100 USD, down 300 USD off the daily highs.

Gazprom halts gas transfer to Europe

After a three-day break, Russian energy giant Gazprom was supposed to resume vital nat gas supplies to Europe through Nord Stream 1 tomorrow. However, Gazprom just declared that it had “entirely interrupted” gas transit to Nord Stream until an undiscovered oil leak is fixed, so Russian gas flows toward Europe won’t be returning soon.

Read more: G7 agrees to cap Russian oil prices

Bloomberg claims, “The energy situation in Europe has dramatically worsened at a time when prices were beginning to ease. If the closure continues, it might endanger people’s homes, businesses, and economy, hurting Europe’s position as it supports Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.”

US jobs data came out mixed

The exact figure of payrolls for August was 315,000, which was below the previously downwardly revised figure of 528,000 for July but somewhat above the consensus estimate of 298,000. However, when all data modifications from the prior year were taken into account, this was the lowest monthly increase since April 2021.

As the labor market continues to recover from the job losses caused by the pandemic-induced recession, nonfarm employment increased by 5.8 million over the preceding 12 months. By February 2020, total nonfarm employment will be 240,000 above its pre-pandemic level as a result of this development. This growth brought total nonfarm employment 240,000 higher than its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.

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The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was reduced substantially lower by 105,000, from +398,000 to +293,000, while the change for July was revised down by 2,000, from +528,000 to +526,000, both of which are noteworthy. With these changes, employment for June and July as a whole is 107,000 fewer than initially estimated.

Compared to forecasts for 3.5% and the previous month’s reading of 3.5%, the unemployment rate came in substantially higher at 3.7%.

Less than expected and far less than the upwardly revised 0.5% in July, hourly earnings grew by 0.3% in August. Worse than the forecasted 5.3%, average hourly salaries increased by 5.2% yearly.