11AM Hour: Perplexity CEO, Former Richmond Fed President on Jobs Number & Lululemon Shares Plunge 9/4/26

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**Carl Quintanilla** (0:57)
Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Leslie Picker here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Sara Eisen's off today. The growing headwinds for the freight industry, a backbone of the US economy. As diesel prices jump to a fresh record high, we're going to talk to one energy expert who sees the potential for more price spikes ahead.

**Leslie Picker** (1:15)
Plus, disappointing guidance sending shares of Lululemon tumbling further, pressuring the turnaround strategy for that retailer's new CEO. We're joined by one analyst who thinks investors should stay sidelined on that stock.

**Carl Quintanilla** (1:28)
And fresh off PC deals with Nvidia and Apple. Buzz about a soaring valuation will be joined by Perplexity CEO this hour. Talk about the state of the AI trade.

**Leslie Picker** (1:37)
Right now, though, the equity market's hovering around session lows. You can see the NASDAQ currently down 0.4%, opening somewhat close to the flat line, but trending lower from there. The Dow down about 0.7% and the 10-year at around 4778%.

**Carl Quintanilla** (1:54)
Let's begin with this morning's jobs number and a new threat this morning from the president to the Fed. Steve Leesman's got the details. Morning, Steve.

**Steve Leesman** (2:01)
Hey, good morning, Carl. Yeah, a ripping jobs report, which has the market pricing in Fed rate hikes, sparking a tweet from the president threatening tariffs if the Fed doesn't cut rates. But first, let's look at the numbers. Non-farm payrolls 162 against an estimate of 53 Unemployment rate coming in unchanged in where it's been. 4.1% for the past several months. Wages also relatively modest, up 0.3%.
3.1 on the year-over-year versus 3% estimate. But Fed futures markets saw this as another notch in the argument to hike September Fed Fund futures for the meeting up to 61% from 50% before the number came out and more confidence even in the second hike now at 88% versus 51%. Yet the debate is whether today's number is a start or a resurgence of job growth or maybe a reversion to the mean after several months of weakness. Take a look here. The strong number followed job gains at just 21,000 in July and 31,000 in June. The three-month average now, 71,000. Healthy but not a barn-burning job market overall. Leisure and hospitality gaining 62,000, but it had lost 75,000 in the prior two months. Local government education up 42,000. It had lost 58,000 in just the last month. Health care was stronger, 28,000. So were construction and manufacturing, which we put together at 40,000. President Trump taking to social media to threaten tariffs on countries with which the US has a trade deficit if the Fed doesn't cut interest rates. Quote, lower the rate, the president said, or I'll stop trading with countries with which we have a deficit. The Fed board, with its great new leader, must get smart, be patriots for a change. I'd point out, micro-economically, countries that have a deficit with the US tend to recycle the dollars back into treasuries, putting downward pressure on interest rates, it's at best unclear how halting the trade with these countries would help the president's cause, but it's the first time I can see that he's threatened the Fed with a tariff action. Carl?

**Carl Quintanilla** (3:51)
And Steve, the list of countries that would ostensibly be included under that would include some of our largest trading partners.

**Steve Leesman** (3:58)
Not just our largest trading partners, which, Carl, you know is a tautology, when I tell you they're also the people that hold the most bonds, right? So China, Japan, all these countries that have trade deficits with the US., they buy our stuff, we give them dollars, they take those dollars, they buy our treasuries, put downward pressure on treasury rates and yields. We have an awful lot of debt to sell. I don't know what we're positioned to be hurting our customers for that debt.