U.S. President Donald Trump boards his plane to depart from Eastern Iowa Airport, U.S. October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters<\/p>\n
After U.S. jobs figures for May and June were revised significantly downward by the Bureau of Labor Statistics \u2014 slashing a combined 258,000 from previous figures \u2014 President Donald Trump, imputing political bias and data manipulation to BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, revised her employment status to “terminated.”<\/p>\n
Government officials from both sides of the political aisle had plenty to say about that.<\/p>\n
“Bottom line, Trump wants to cook the books,” said\u00a0<\/a>Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Rand Paul told NBC News<\/a> that “you can’t really make the numbers different or better by firing the people doing the counting.”<\/p>\n The move, indeed, does have a whiff of the Chinese government, in August 2023, stopping the release<\/a> of youth unemployment rates because they were spiking to record highs. (Beijing resumed disseminating the data<\/a> in January 2024.)<\/p>\n A falling tree makes a sound, regardless of whether there’s anyone around to hear it. Terminating the person who reports that noise won’t suck sound waves back into a vacuum either.<\/p>\n Markets, too, were vocal in their response to Trump’s firing of McEntarfer as well as the dismal jobs report. On Friday, the three major U.S. indexes had their worst day in months, a sharp turn from the week prior, which saw consecutive days of record highs for the S&P 500<\/a> and Nasdaq Composite<\/a>.<\/p>\n This changes the calculus. With new tariffs due to take effect Aug. 7 \u2014 which could further slow hiring in the U.S. because of increased costs and uncertainties for companies \u2014 both the economy and markets might weaken further. Then it becomes a matter of whether the “TACO trade<\/a>” \u2014 “Trump Always Chickens Out” \u2014 will, in the words of The Terminator, be back.<\/p>\n \u2014 Jeff Cox, Dan Mangan contributed to this report<\/p>\n What you need to know today<\/p>\n Cracks appear in the U.S. jobs market. Nonfarm payrolls in July grew 73,000, lower than the Dow Jones estimate of a 100,000 gain. Unemployment edged up 10 basis points to 4.2%. June and May’s jobs numbers were revised dramatically lower<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics after jobs report. In a Truth Social post<\/a>, the U.S. president accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of being a political appointee who “faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election” and providing inaccurate data<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stocks suffer their worst day in months. On Friday, the S&P 500 lost 1.6%, its worst day since May 21<\/a>, breaking a 26-day streak when the index’s moves remained within a 1% range. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index<\/a> fell 1.89%, its biggest drop since April<\/a>.<\/p>\n Berkshire Hathaway’s operating profit drops. Year over year, Warren Buffet’s conglomerate experienced a 4% drop in second-quarter earnings<\/a> to $11.16 billion. Berkshire warned of Trump’s tariffs and their impact on its businesses.<\/p>\n [PRO] August is historically the second worst month for the S&P 500. That’s according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, which tracks data back to 1988. Tariff developments and AI-related earnings during the week<\/a> will give a sign of whether history will repeat itself.<\/p>\n And finally…<\/p>\n A worker adjusts a window display at a Rolex store on Thursday, July 24, 2025.<\/p>\n Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n Switzerland’s tariff shock: The 39% U.S. hit no one saw coming<\/a><\/p>\n The U.S.’ imposition of a 39% tariff rate on Switzerland’s came as a shock to the Alpine nation. Indications in the Swiss press had been that the country was close to negotiating an outline deal similar to those struck by the\u00a0European Union<\/a>,\u00a0the U.K.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Japan<\/a>, which set baseline tariffs between 10% and 15%.<\/p>\n