A more comprehensive report on the job market’s health during August will arrive on Friday from the US Labor Department, and it will likely carry much weight with the Fed. Ahead of it, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18 per cent from 4.22 per cent late Wednesday.

Last month’s grim jobs report, which included massive downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiralling and prompted Trump to fire the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

On Wall Street, American Eagle Outfitters jumped 37.9 per cent after the teen fashion retailer reported more than double the profit that analysts had expected for its latest quarter. It benefited from a frenzy of media attention in late July over a provocative advertising campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney.

The ads — which featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise added 0.7 per cent following its own better-than-expected profit report.

T. Rowe Price climbed 5.8 per cent after announcing a deal where Goldman Sachs plans to buy up to $US3.5 billion ($5.4 billion) of its stock, or up to 3.5 per cent of all its shares. They’re teaming up to offer access to some of the private markets where Goldman Sachs is an expert to the retirement savers and other investors that T. Rowe Price serves. Goldman Sachs added 2.6 per cent.

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On the losing side of Wall Street was Salesforce, which was one of the heaviest weights on the market despite reporting a better profit than analysts expected. Analysts called the performance solid but suggested some of it may have come from one-time factors. Salesforce, which helps businesses manage their customers, slumped 4.9 per cent.

C3.ai fell 7.3 per cent after reporting a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chairman Thomas Siebel called the results “completely unacceptable,” while announcing a new chief executive for the company, Stephen Ehikian. He was most recently acting administrator of the US General Services Administration.

Figma tumbled 20 per cent even though the company, which offers a design and product development platform, reported results for the latest quarter that roughly matched analysts’ expectations. Its forecasts for upcoming revenue also came close to analysts’, but expectations may have been even higher given that its stock came into the day at more than double its $33 IPO price from July.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Indexes dropped 1.3 per cent in Shanghai and 1.1 per cent in Hong Kong but jumped 1.5 per cent in Tokyo.

AP

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