Bull Market on Thin Ice Ahead of Jobs Report and Broadcom Earnings
U.S. stocks have made significant gains this week, pushing them within 1% of their record highs set on August 13.
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.49% this week and now sits just over 1% below its all-time closing high of 7,798.99.
Next week will be a critical test for the bull market as two major events unfold: the U.S. August nonfarm payrolls report on September 4 and Broadcom's latest earnings also due out that day.
The jobs report will provide key signals on labor market resilience, wage growth, and inflationary pressures, which in turn will impact expectations of further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Investors are closely watching this data to assess the likelihood of a 25-basis-point rate hike at the September meeting.
The current probability assigned to a rate hike at the September meeting is 57%, with markets fully pricing in at least one hike by December.