The Rundown - Stocks Jump on Blockbuster Jobs Report, Port Union Agrees to Suspend Strike

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Stock market update for October 4, 2024.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zadmani, and today is Friday, October 4th. In today's episode, we recapped the huge jobs report that dropped this morning that is moving markets. Also, the port strike is over. We tell you why, and why it might just be temporary. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why Rivian stock is down, and who just overtook Jeff Bezos for the number two spot on the rich guy list.

He's a first timer. All right, let's go. Yesterday was a very up and down kind of day for the stock market. Stocks did end up finishing the day in the red with the S&P down 0.2% and the NASDAQ down less than 0.1%. So not a huge loss. The big story yesterday was oil prices. They spiked again, this time going up 5%. That's the biggest one-day gain for oil since October of 2023.

It looks like the conflict in the Middle East is starting to make oil traders kind of nervous right now. is trading around $74 a barrel, which is the highest it's been since August of this year. But it's still 15% below the highs of 2024, which was back in April when oil was trading around $87 a barrel. So it's not something to be super worried about right now, but if oil prices keep going up, then that could reignite inflation again. And something we've been waiting for all week just dropped. The September's jobs report is out. And oh my God, it's a shocker.

According to the report, the economy added 254,000 jobs in September, which is way up from the 159,000 jobs added in August and much more than the 150,000 jobs that was expected. And on top of that, the unemployment rate fell from 4.2% down to 4.1%. I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of floored right now. There was real concerns of a slowing job market after a few months of shaky job reports, but seeing a report like this, that might alleviate some concerns. I'm recording this before the market's open, and I see green flashing across the board. And remember, the Fed is planning to cut rates a couple more times this year. So the soft landing is definitely in play. What a great way to end the week.

Let's run through some headlines. The port strike is over. The longshoremen union agreed to a tentative deal, which will reopen the 14 ports up and down the east and Gulf Coast that have been frozen since Tuesday. Look, I didn't expect things to be worked out so quick, but I'm not complaining. Now, the union did not agree to a new deal instead the two sides just extended their existing deal through January 15th, so they're kicking the can down the road to have some

time to negotiate a new longer contract. The two sides have made some progress on a tentative deal like wages will be increased to 61.5% over six years under the tentative agreement. But there are still some stuff that got to figure out like port automation. That still needs to be negotiated. Port operators want more automation to increase the efficiencies of their ports, but the union obviously doesn't because it could potentially threaten jobs. So yeah, these two sides are far apart on this issue, but they got three months to figure it out now. Meanwhile, goods will start flowing through the ports again.

It might take a couple days for the ports to work through the backlog of containers, but experts aren't expecting this to be a huge issue and the impact on the economy should be minimal at this point, which is definitely a side of relief because, man, the strike was already starting to stress some supply chains and cause, panic. I went to Costco the other day. There was no toilet paper. So I guess we were doing that again. And on a more personal note, baby formula was hard to find. I have a 12 month old and we couldn't find his baby formula at the stores. You know, he drinks the European ones. Thankfully, he's trying moving off the formula anyway, so it's not that big of a deal for us. But for parents that need that European baby formula, it is a stressful time right now. But now with the strikeover, hopefully the baby formula and the toilet paper and all the other items that people are panic buying will be restocked pretty soon and things can get back to normal.

I can't believe we were doing this again, man. Panic buying? Why is it always toilet paper? Let's shift gears and talk about Spirit Airlines. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Spirit Airlines is thinking about filing for bankruptcy. Things have not been going great for Spirit this year. In fact, things haven't been going great for Spirit since the pandemic. The revenues continue to fall.

The airline hasn't made a profit since COVID, and they have over $3.3 billion in debt. And they're having a hard time paying off that debt. I think what happened is over the last three or four years, the big airlines, United, American, and Delta started offering low-cost tickets themselves. In fact, I've seen cheaper tickets through United than I've seen through Spirit these days. Spirit just has been able to compete, and now they're in trouble. I think Spirit was really banking on the merger with JetBlue to go through, but that was blocked by the DOJ back in January. I personally think that was a mistake. I think that deal should have been able to go through because now both those

airlines are struggling, and now Spirit Airlines might face bankruptcy. Now, there's no official filings yet, but it's not looking good for Spirit right now. Shares of Spirit Airlines are are down 30% in reaction to this news this morning. And if you zoom out a bit, Spirit stock is down more than 85% this year. Man, that is brutal. Back in 2014, Spirit Stock was trading north of $80. Today, it's trading under $2. It's brutal.

Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Summit Therapeutics are rising after the farmer company's cancer drug received a fast-track designation from the FDA. A fast-track designation basically speeds up the regulatory process. process and it'll open up a wider line of communication between Summit and the FDA. The drug that I'm talking about is called Ivanesimab. I don't know why I'm trying. I can't pronounce this drug. This drug could really move the needle and as a result, Summit therapeutic stock is up 7% on this news. On the flip side, shares of Rivian are down this

morning after they cut their 2024 production forecast due to a shortage of parts for their EV pickup trucks and commercial vans. The EV automaker now says it'll produce between 47,000 and 49,000 vehicles for the full year down from their original forecast of 57,000. So that's a pretty significant cut in their forecasts. Rivian also said they delivered just over 10,000 vehicles in Q3, which is the lowest total in a year and a half. That's not very encouraging, and Rivian stock is down close to 7% in the pre-market on this news. And if you zoom out a bit, their stock is down 50% year to date.

Man, Rivian at one point was valued over $100 billion at its IPO, but now their valuation has dropped under 11 billion. So not great for Rivian right now. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Mark Zuckerberg just passed Jeff Bezos to become the world's second richest person. This is the first time that Zuck has held the number two spot and his net worth is now above $206 billion as of Thursday's market close. It's the highest it's ever been, which makes sense because meta stock hit all-time highs. Zuck, obviously the founder and CEO of META, he owns 13% percent. stake in the company. As the stock keeps making new highs, his wealth keeps going up. Just this year alone, his net worth has gone up by $78 billion, according to Bloomberg. So it really has been

the year of Zuck. He seems to be cool now. He wears chains and oversized t-shirts. He trains with MMA fighters. I mean, what a turnaround by Zuck. Now, if you're wondering who the richest person in the world is, that would still be Elon Musk. He has a net worth of over $250 billion. So Zuck's still like $50 billion behind Elon for the number one spot. But hey, with the way things are going for Zuck, man, I mean, I wouldn't count them out. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Man, there's a lot that happened this week.

And it ended with a blockbuster jobs report. And you hear that sound? That is earning season right around the corner. So I can't wait for that. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, consider sharing the show with someone who would enjoy it as well. And if you have like 12 extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple and Spotify and write a review on Apple as well. People really do read those reviews. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. Have a great

weekend, everybody. And we'll see you guys back here on Monday. This is the rundown, your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security. Run-down guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult respected professionals. Learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Zayidmani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by open to the public investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.