July 4, 2026, 7:01 a.m. ET
- The Dow climbed to fresh record highs, surpassing 52,750 points on Thursday.
- Job growth cooled sharply in June, with payrolls rising just 57,000 — well below the 115,000 consensus and down from a revised 129,000 in May.
Happy 250th birthday, America.
In a holiday-shortened week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — the oldest U.S. stock market index — climbed to fresh record highs, surpassing 52,750 points on Thursday.
The rally reflected a great rotation from AI capital expenditure names into the blue-chip industrials benefiting from that same spending wave.
Cooling job market
Job growth cooled sharply in June, with payrolls rising just 57,000 — well below the 115,000 consensus and down from a revised 129,000 in May. April’s growth was also cut by 31,000, bringing combined revisions to a net minus 74,000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%, but only because labor force participation fell to 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021.
That was exactly what markets needed to quell rate-hike fears. The odds of a July hike collapsed to roughly 20%, and traders now fully price the next hike only by December.
The two-year Treasury yield dropped to 4.13%.
New fed chair makes his global debut
In his first international appearance as Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh warned investors at the European Central Bank (ECB) Forum in Sintra, Portugal, not to expect an accommodating central bank while inflation sits above 2%.
Anyone in households, business or financial markets expecting the Fed to tolerate inflation above 2%, he said, “would be disappointed.”
Yet he also flagged that inflation expectations have “moderated” since his May 22 swearing-in — a subtle dovish hint.
The moderation reflects the continued oil collapse. WTI crude tumbled to $67 a barrel this week, fully erasing the war premium built up since the Iran conflict began in February, as transits through the Strait of Hormuz normalized.
Magnificent Seven rebound
After a brutal June, the Magnificent Seven rebounded across the board.
Microsoft led the way, up 6.7% on the week following its worst month since 2000. Apple added 4.7% and Meta Platforms added 5.8%, among the other gainers.
Nike’s tariff-powered win
Nike reported fourth-quarter revenue of $10.97 billion, beating estimates. Its earnings per share from core business (or headline EPS) of 72 cents towered over the 13 cents that analysts predicted, but the win was inflated by a $986 million IEEPA tariff refund — worth 52 cents per share. Strip that out and adjusted EPS came to 20 cents, still above expectations.
Despite weakening sales in China, Nike stock rallied 4.9% following results.
Benzinga is a financial news and data company headquartered in Detroit.
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