*The central bank will also be looking at how much Covid impacted hiring and activity during August. The virus variant has been a wild card for the economy, and its impact could be a factor that sways the Fed as it considers the first step away from the easing policies. Leisure and hospitality, which is the sector hit hardest by the pandemic in 2020, added zero jobs in August, according to the report.*
*The Treasury curve steepened, with the gap between 5- and 30-year yields increasing. Investors also assessed a Bloomberg News report saying that Senate Democrats are discussing a wider range of tax proposals than President Joe Biden envisioned, including levies on stock buybacks, carbon emissions and executive compensation.*
*In the run-up to the jobs report, equity funds attracted $19.2 billion of inflows, trailed by the $12.7 billion allocated to bonds, according to Bank of America Corp. The firm cited EPFR Global data for the week through Wednesday. Outflows from cash funds were the biggest in seven weeks, with $23 billion exiting.*
*The price of bitcoin climbed over $51,000 on Friday, reaching its highest level since the middle of May. Investors say bitcoin’s movement coincided with hundreds of millions of dollars in options expiries on Friday.*
*Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said on “Squawk on the Street” that the impact of the delta variant could weaken in the months ahead, with cases and hospitalizations now declining in some states, and that the overall report was more of a “mixed picture” than the headline miss suggested.*
*“I think there is reason to believe the situation is improving somewhat and we’ll get better [jobs] numbers in coming months,” Hatzius said.*
*Elsewhere, Japanese stocks far outperformed their Asian peers Friday after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose government has come under fire for its handling of the pandemic, said he would resign ahead of national elections this year.*
*The other big story in markets has been the Nikkei’s 2% surge, suggesting “investors are optimistic that the country will find a stronger leader.” Japan Nikkei 225_ closed up 2.1% on Friday and produced a 5.4% weekly advance, marking the strongest weekly gain since the period ended Nov. 6, 2020, FactSet data show.*
*Meanwhile, Chinese stocks felt a pinch after weak economic data from the August services purchasing managers index (PMI), which came in at 46.7, below the 52.0 expected and a decline from 54.9 in July.*
*Volume on U.S. exchanges was 8.37 billion shares, compared with the 8.99 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.*
European markets closed lower on Friday as investors reacted to key economic indicators out of the euro zone and the U.S.
*Euro zone business activity remained robust in August despite the impact of the Delta variant of Covid-19 and broad supply chain problems. The final IHS Markit composite PMI (purchasing managers’ index) reading for the bloc dropped to 59.0 from July’s 15-year high of 60.2, remaining well clear of the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction.*
*German polling on Thursday showed the Social Democrats opening up a five-point lead over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in the run-in to the Sept. 26 national election in Europe’s largest economy.*
*Some corporate highlights:*
#Travel companies such as Carnival Corp. and American Airlines Group Inc. fell as employment in leisure and hospitality -- which had posted strong gains recently -- was flat in August.
#Moderna Inc. said it completed its submission to U.S. regulators for clearance of a booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine.
#Forte Biosciences Inc. plummeted after its only product in development failed to have an effect on a common skin disease.
# Broadcom Inc., one of the world’s largest chipmakers, climbed after giving a bullish sales forecast, helped by demand for components used in corporate computer networks and smartphones.
By: via @AlliesFin Serve Stock Market
