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(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said the US economy is in good shape, though it’s unclear whether the labor market is getting back to normal rates of hiring or more seriously deteriorating.Most Read from BloombergSinger Akon’s Multibillion-Dollar Futuristic City in Africa Gets Final NoticeValencia Follows Barcelona in Crackdown on Short-Term RentalsWhat a Beautiful Bus Stop Can DoA Vast Wetland Park Seeks to Slake a Thirsty MegacityUber and Lyft Strike NYC

Global hedge funds continued to add bearish equity bets to portfolios in the week to Aug. 1 when fresh data sparked fears the U.S. economy is slowing faster than anticipated, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients. It marks the third consecutive week that hedge funds' bets that stocks will fall outpaced the addition of long positions, Goldman said, noting one long position was added for every 3.3 short bets. The Nasdaq Composite fell into correction territory on Friday after economic data for two consecutive days pointed to a faster-than-anticipated slowdown.

(Bloomberg) -- A rally in the Treasury market accelerated on Friday as softening US employment data fueled speculation the Federal Reserve will start aggressively cutting interest rates to keep the economy from stalling. Most Read from BloombergSinger Akon’s Multibillion-Dollar Futuristic City in Africa Gets Final NoticeValencia Follows Barcelona in Crackdown on Short-Term RentalsWhat a Beautiful Bus Stop Can DoA Vast Wetland Park Seeks to Slake a Thirsty MegacityUber and Lyft Strike NYC Deal to

A surprisingly weak U.S. employment report for June has turned Wall Street confidence on a soft landing into near panic that a recession is looming, prompting major firms to change forecasts for Federal Reserve easing this year to more aggressive interest rate cutting. Employers added just 114,000 jobs in July, the U.S. Labor Department reportedon Friday, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, from 4.1% in June, marking an unexpected deterioration in a labor market that had held up surprisingly well during the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate-hike campaign in 2022 and 2023.

(Bloomberg) -- Wall Street banks are calling for aggressive interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve based on the latest evidence that the labor market is cooling. Most Read from BloombergSinger Akon’s Multibillion-Dollar Futuristic City in Africa Gets Final NoticeValencia Follows Barcelona in Crackdown on Short-Term RentalsWhat a Beautiful Bus Stop Can DoA Vast Wetland Park Seeks to Slake a Thirsty MegacityUber and Lyft Strike NYC Deal to Scale Back Driver LockoutsEconomists at Bank of America

(Bloomberg) -- Oil slumped to the lowest in almost seven months as concerns about demand in the world’s two biggest economies overshadowed heightened geopolitical risk.Most Read from BloombergSinger Akon’s Multibillion-Dollar Futuristic City in Africa Gets Final NoticeValencia Follows Barcelona in Crackdown on Short-Term RentalsWhat a Beautiful Bus Stop Can DoA Vast Wetland Park Seeks to Slake a Thirsty MegacityUber and Lyft Strike NYC Deal to Scale Back Driver LockoutsBrent crude slid 3.4% to s

The disappointing U.S. employment report for July unleashed a "Freakout Friday" moment in financial markets and triggered a wholesale resetting of expectations for how much the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates next month. There was much to grimace about in the Bureau of Labor Statistics report card on the job market, including a jump in the unemployment rate to a post-pandemic high and the weakest pace of private-sector hiring in 16 months. The BLS added a big footnote to the first page of Friday's release to say Hurricane Beryl - which slammed into Texas during the employment report survey week and left some 2.7 million homes and businesses in the Houston area without power for days - "had no discernible effect" on the month's data.