NEW YORK, September 4, 2026, 8:32 a.m. EDT — Gold gave the clearest verdict on Friday’s jobs report, falling $75.60 an ounce in three minutes. U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, nearly triple the pre-release consensus, while a revision turned July’s reported payroll loss into a gain. S&P 500 futures dropped below their prior settlement reference. The labor market has stopped arguing for an easy Federal Reserve pause; inflation will decide the rest.
December gold was at $4,442.10 at 8:32:25 a.m. EDT, 1.67% below its 8:29 level. Over those same minutes, Nasdaq-100 futures lost 0.44%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.30% and 10-year Treasury-note futures dropped 0.35%. ICE U.S. Dollar Index futures moved the other way, up 0.36%. The figures are one-minute Yahoo Finance bars retrieved at 8:42 a.m.; the latest ticks available then were stamped 8:32:24–8:32:25. Cash equities open at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
The first two minutes after payrolls
Percentage change from 8:29 a.m. to
Source: Yahoo Finance one-minute futures bars. Gold: GC=F; Nasdaq-100: NQ=F; S&P 500: ES=F; 10-year note: ZN=F; dollar: DX-Y.NYB. Futures prices can differ from cash-market levels.
July’s odd weak spots snapped back
The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the August payroll gain at 162,000. Reuters had collected a 56,000 consensus after July’s first estimate showed a 23,000 decline. The latest official payroll series now records gains of 21,000 in July and 31,000 in June. In one release, 55,000 jobs were added to the previous two-month count.
| Employment measure | August | July, revised | Pre-release bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonfarm payroll change | +162,000 | +21,000 | +56,000 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.1% | 4.1% | 4.1% |
| Average hourly earnings | +0.3% m/m; +3.1% y/y | +0.2% m/m | — |
| Labor-force participation | 61.6% | 61.4% | — |
Two rebound categories did most of the work. Leisure and hospitality added 62,000 jobs. Local-government education gained 50,000 after losing exactly 50,000 in July, the sort of reversal that points to difficult seasonal adjustment around school calendars. Combined, those categories accounted for 112,000 jobs, or 69% of the August increase.
The rest of the report did show pockets of hiring. Health care added 28,400 jobs, construction 22,000 and manufacturing 16,000. Information payrolls fell 23,000, and financial activities lost 11,000. Private employers added 127,000 jobs overall; government added 35,000.
The separate household survey was firm, although hardly overheated. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.1% as labor-force participation rose two-tenths to 61.6%. U-6, a broader measure of underemployment, eased to 7.7% from 7.9%. The employment-to-population ratio rose two-tenths as well. A larger supply of workers takes some inflation sting out of the payroll surprise.
Gold’s rally ran into a higher-rate problem
Gold arrived at the release with a sharp safe-haven and rate-relief rally behind it. Stronger employment makes a zero-yielding asset less attractive at the margin. It can lift the dollar too, increasing bullion’s cost for buyers using other currencies. Within minutes, the dollar was higher, Treasury prices were lower and gold had surrendered much more than stock futures.
Pay did little to rescue the rate-relief trade. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in August and 3.1% over 12 months. The average workweek edged up to 34.4 hours from 34.3. Even so, payroll gains have averaged 71,000 over the past three months and about 50,000 over the past year. August broke that slow pattern. It will take another strong report to establish a faster one.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller laid out the remaining choice on Thursday. Continued disinflation would leave him inclined to hold the federal-funds target unchanged. If August price data show that improvement was fleeting, a rate increase may be appropriate, he said in official remarks. The hiring data give policymakers less cause to fear an imminent break in the labor market. They still need the price data.
S&P 500 futures were at 7,735.75 at 8:32, leaving 7,754.75, their prior settlement reference, as the first test at the opening bell. Nasdaq-100 futures had erased most of their pre-release gain at 29,545, but remained 20 points above the prior reference. The August consumer-price report follows September 11 at 8:30 a.m. EDT, five days before the second day of the September 15–16 Fed meeting.
If CPI runs hot, gold and long-duration equities face a second dose of the same selling pressure. A soft reading could undo much of Friday’s first move, especially with two rebound-heavy categories behind most of the payroll gain. The jobs report has made rate-sensitive assets more vulnerable. A single month has not proved that the low-hiring economy is over.
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