Stocks tumbled today in response to weaker than expected jobs data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average took the brunt of it, falling more than 300 points and shaving nearly 1% off its value. The S&P 500 was down half a percent while the Nasdaq managed to eke out fractional gains.
Investors were spooked by an ADP jobs report, which revealed that jobs are being added to the private sector at a slower pace than expected. In July, companies added 330,000 payrolls while economists were looking for something along the lines of 690,000. In addition, the outlook for the delta variant isn’t getting any better, and investors are watching and waiting to see if renewed lockdowns will be implemented.
Stocks to Watch
Uber shares are getting punished in extended hours, falling nearly 4% at last check. The ride-share company narrowed its Q2 loss to USD 509 million, but it was still steeper than Wall Street was expecting. Uber and Lyft are both facing driver constraints that have been exacerbated by the resurgence of the virus. On the bright side, Uber had record bookings while revenue grew twofold.
Robinhood shares rallied 50% during the regular session, and according to reports, it was retail investors driving the price higher. Fidelity reportedly had close to 10K buy orders by individual investors early in the session, far outpacing the second most in-demand stock at the broker, GM.
Shares Etsy, an e-commerce site for handcrafted items, dropped 13.5% in extended hours amid signs that the pandemic-fueled shopping boom is winding down. Etsy’s Q2 sales increased by a double-digit percentage but it was less robust than recent quarters. Meanwhile, the company’s Q3 revenue outlook came in below consensus estimates.
Roku’s stock fell more than 8% in the after-hours. The video-streaming hardware company’s Q2 results fell short of estimates as the opening of the economy cut into users’ streaming time. Roku had 55.1 million active users in the quarter across more than 17 billion hours of streaming. The company continues to operate in an uncertain environment while comps from the pandemic year will remain a challenge for the rest of 2021.
Look Ahead
Investors will be on pins and needles until Friday when the employment report for the month of July is released. In the interim, stock futures are barely moving in the after-hours on Wednesday evening, with the three major stock market indexes leaning toward green.
