Nasdaq Leads Midday After Cooler Jobs Print; Nike Still Lower

It's Friday, October second. This is Trade and Ticker — the lunch report. Midday check on U.S. stocks after this morning's jobs print.

Two things still matter into the afternoon. First, the September jobs report — and how yields and October Fed hike odds are trading after that cooler labor package. Second, whether growth keeps leading into Friday's close while Nike and the storage names stay the clear single-name overhangs. We will cover both as we go.

Here's the picture at midday. U.S. stocks are higher, with Nasdaq carrying the board and hitting a session record. The Nasdaq is up about one-and-a-quarter percent. The S-and-P is up about three-quarters of a percent. The Dow is up about half a percent. That gap is the signal: money is back in technology and growth after a cooler labor print cooled the rate-hike scare.

On the jobs number itself — nonfarm payrolls rose just twenty-nine thousand in September. The unemployment rate ticked up to four-point-two percent. Average hourly earnings rose only one-tenth of a percent on the month, putting the year-over-year gain at three percent — the softest annual wage pace since twenty twenty-one. July and August were revised down by a combined sixty thousand jobs. Markets read that package as less pressure for another hike at the October Fed meeting. October hike odds have cooled further — roughly a one-in-six chance of a move this month, with the hold bet now the clear base case. Yields eased after the print from that five-and-a-quarter morning area, though the exact ticks have been choppy midday. Treat bonds as still the valuation governor, just less of a hike panic than at eight-thirty.

On the leaders, chips and megacaps are doing the heavy lifting. Nvidia is higher by about two percent and has touched a fresh intraday high. Advanced Micro Devices is up around two-and-a-half percent. Tesla is one of the louder upside moves — about five percent higher — after third-quarter deliveries beat expectations at roughly four hundred eighty-seven thousand vehicles. On the other side, Nike is still the consumer overhang: down about five-and-a-half to six percent on the day after last night's high-single-digit revenue decline guide and Pace savings plan. And hard-drive names Seagate and Western Digital are both down about twelve percent after a Nikkei report that Toshiba plans to double hard-disk production capacity for A-I data centers. That is a supply scare inside an otherwise constructive A-I hardware tape — memory and chips are bid; storage hardware is getting hit.

After the close, the earnings calendar is quiet into the weekend. There is no major mega-cap print tonight to reset the tape. What still matters into four o'clock is whether the Nasdaq's record session holds, whether Nike's slide stays contained in retail and apparel, and whether those storage names keep dragging the A-I infrastructure sleeve or get bought as a one-day supply scare. Monday's earnings calendar also looks thin — so Friday's close and the weekend narrative around jobs, yields, and Nike matter more than a Sunday night futures surprise from a big report.

Watch three things into the close. First, whether the Nasdaq keeps its roughly one-and-a-quarter-percent lead through the final hour, or whether growth gives some of that back into the weekend. Second, whether yields stay eased after the jobs miss, or whether another push higher re-tightens everything that is not an A-I winner. Third, Nike and the storage complex — contained single-name damage versus a broader late-day risk-off move in consumer and A-I infrastructure names.

That's your midday map. We'll be back this evening with a company deep dive on the names driving this cooler-jobs, growth-led Friday — including how Nike's guide and the chip-and-storage split are shaping the weekend story. Thanks for listening. I'm Trade and Ticker.