Good morning and happy Friday today is August 4th and I'm Rina Sherbal

filling in for Julie Morgan. Our top stories today, Labor Market Strength

with some signs of weakness, more earnings to dissect, and stock futures

rebound ahead of July jobs report. Our top story today, the US labor market is

expected to stay strong in July with jobs growth

continuing to outpace the number of workers coming into the job market and the

unemployment rate stay near 50-year lows. On average, economists expect 200,000 new jobs in July, down modestly,

from the 209,000 reported in June, when the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, issues its employment situation report on Friday.

Watch for the Labor Department's revisions to June and May numbers, as that might nudge the overall path.

The unemployment rate is seen staying at 3.6% and the labor force participation rate is expected

to remain unchanged at 62.6%.

Average hourly earnings growth is forecast to cool to 4.2% year over year, compared with 4.4% in June.

Giacomo Santangelo, an economist at Job Search site Monster, expects a strong print in July,

though he does not give a specific number.

The trend in growth in leisure and hospitality jobs and health care is likely to persist in the near term.

Leisure and hospitality continues to experience increased activity

as consumers are still eager to travel after the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

Jeffrey Rosenkrantz, portfolio manager at Shelton Capital,

sees the rebound from the pandemic continuing

to keep demand for labor strong.

He points out that companies are still hesitant to lay

off workers when business slows because they have such a hard time getting staff to full

...