Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, September 4th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far. A day after stocks plunged on concerns about economic growth, buyers are back with those concerns only heightened. A week July job openings and labor turnover survey or jolts

boosted expectations that the Fed will kick off its cycle of interest rate cuts with authority.

Odds are now 50-50 between a September cut of a quarter point or half point.

Strategist T.S. Lombard noted,

Pallas Jackson Hole speech gave a strong indication that inflation is no longer the tail risk for the Fed

and that is the health of the labor

market that is now paramount. While the dual mandate had gained greater prominence in

recent weeks, Powell's speech marks the first Volt-Foss and Fed rhetoric since the

start of the rate hikes in 2022.

July job openings dropped to 7.673 million from 7.910 million in June,

well below the 8.09 million expected.

The June figure was revised down from the initial 8.184

million print. The job openings rate dipped to 4.6% from 4.9% in June, while the Quitz rate ticked up to 2.1% from a revised 2% in June.

Layoffs and discharges rose to 1.72 million from 1.56 million in June, the highest level since March 2023.

Kathy Jones, Fix income strategist at Schwab, says the labor market is looking softer than

pre-pandemic levels.

While trading remained choppy, stocks reacted favorably to the weak data, or rather the Fed implications, the major averages wiped out early losses.

Treasury yields fell more on the short end with a two-year yield easing back to about 3.8%.

Michael Brown, senior strategist at Pepperstone, says the Joltz print,

further raises the stakes for Friday's jobs report

and provides additional signs that bad news is bad news at present

...