Gold, Silver Soar Overnight; BLS Reports July Job Losses of 23,000; Wall Street Thrilled with Weakening Economy

Taking a breather in advance of Friday's July Non-farm Payroll data, stocks turned modestly to the downside, the Dow being the most affected, having made outsized moves higher lately.

Overnight, stock futures made small gains, but the bigger story was n precious metals, with silver soaring past $64.50 and gold topping out above $4,300. Both metals appear to have put in near term bottoms and recent gains can be pinpointed to the end of July, when China severely restricted gold and silver futures, setting in place trading tied to physical metal, in direct opposition to the paper trades of the COMEX and LBMA.

China's bold strategy may turn out to be a tectonic shift in precius metals trading, shifting the focus from West to East, thwarting the tactics that have suppressed the prices of gold and silver for decades. The transition - basing price on physical delivery rather than false standards and promises settled in fiat paper - is likely to take months and years to fully impact the global market, but all indications are that China, as the world's largest holder of gold, wants money to be back by something more than full faith and credit of broken, bankrupt Western economies.

As the BLS reported Friday morning that the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, the U.S. lost jobs in July, down 23,000. The drop in U.S. employment was the seventh monthly decline in the last 18 reports. Job losses were reported by the BLS in January, June, August, October, and December of 2025, and in February, and now, July, 2026.

Worsening the situation, the BLS also reported:

The change in total non-farm payroll employment for May was revised down by 66,000, from +129,000 to +63,000, and the change for June was revised down by 37,000, from +57,000 to +20,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 103,000 lower than previously reported.

These downside revisions have become routine, and sometimes are market-moving. Reaction in the futures markets to what should be considered bad news, had the usual Wall Street pretzel logic, as a decline in employment might urge the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, as cheap money is always and everywhere top of mind for Wall Street financiers. Stock futures spiked higher, along with gold and silver futures.

Seemingly content with a crippled job market, Wall Street faces a tangled dilemma. Federal Reserve Chairman, Kevin Warsh, is unlikely to reveal any indications of the FOMC's future intent, all the while the new Fed head leaning toward a slow and measured response, preferring the market making adjustments rather than the Fed pulling on the market's nose ring via hints, suppositions, and directional interest rate moves. The next FOMC meeting isn't for a month (September 15-16). Also, at the July meeting, three board members voted for a rate hike, so turning the board in favor of a cut would be a titanic effort.

Approaching 9:00 am ET, stock futures held their gains, with Dow futures up 159 points, NASDAQ futures ahead by 353, and S&P futures up 40 points.

Given that the July jobs report came in below the lowest estimate, it may be regarded as something of a shock, but the real trend is shown over the past 18 months, as U.S. job growth has stagnated. On the economy as a whole, Friday's July payrolls fall in line with the first reading of second quarter GDP, which was up a tiny 1.5%.

How Wall Street balances out a tiring econony with a runaway, overvalued stock market should begin to unfold today.

At the Close, Thursday, august 6, 2026:
Dow: 53,885.10, -464.02 (-0.85%)
NASDAQ: 26,348.35, -15.09 (-0.06%)
S&P 500: 7,709.96, -13.59 (-0.18%)
NYSE Composite: 24,484.06, -29.75 (-0.12%)