Nvidia's record-breaking stock buyback

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo, the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, from CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce and more. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. This is why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you?

Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's odoo.com.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

This Marketplace podcast is brought to you by Wealth Enhancement, who asks, Do you have a Wealth Blueprint? Your advisor might not offer that. Which means your plan could be missing tax strategies, retirement, estate planning or more.

See what a comprehensive plan has to offer, find out what the Wealth Blueprint at no cost, and see what comprehensive planning can do for you. Though you'll wonder what you've been paying for. Learn more at wealthenhancement.com/build.

Kai Ryssdal (1:02)

Where is this economy going? Oh, wouldn't you like to know?

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Riznall. It is Monday today. This one is the 28th day of September. Good as it always is. Stab you along, everybody. The first couple of minutes of the program today are going to be about time, about where the economy might be going, and about where it has been. It is often said here and elsewhere that if you want to know which way the economy is going, the bond market is where you ought to look. And with the caveat that, yes, we have been doing a whole lot of bond stories the past couple of weeks, the story that the bond market is telling us just keeps being reinforced. Business activity is strong. Government debt is high. The geopolitical narrative is unclear at best. And so, today, bond yields across the curve, that is, the interest rate the government has to pay on almost all of its notes, bonds and bills, those yields were up, again, in some cases, to 19-year highs. So at the very least, the economy yet to come is going to be more expensive. We are also going to learn some things about the economy that was this week. On Wednesday, we'll get what was, once upon a time, Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index for the month of August. We'll get data on home prices, that's coming from Kay Schiller, and a whole bunch of data on the labor market, the job openings and the labor turnover survey. That's Joltz, right? We talk about that all the time. It comes tomorrow. ADP's private sector employment data comes on Wednesday. Weekly first-time claims run employment benefits on Thursday, and then Friday, the biggie, the September jobs report.

So Marketplace has met the fields, asked some economists what they're going to be looking for in all of that data.

Samantha Fields (3:12)

Last month's jobs report was surprisingly strong. It showed the economy added more than 162,000 jobs in August, up from just 21,000 in July and 31,000 in June.

Justin Wolfers (3:24)

The big question is, was that a blip, or was that the data trying to tell us that things weren't so bad?

Samantha Fields (3:31)

Justin Wolfer is at the University of Michigan, says that's what he'll be looking to see when the September report comes out this week.

Justin Wolfers (3:37)

The most important thing is not to overreact to any one number.

Samantha Fields (3:40)

There's always volatility in the data, which is why Heidi Scheerholz at the Economic Policy Institute says you want to look at the last several months together.

Heidi Schierholz (3:48)

What we've seen recently is that the labor market is okay. There's good news and bad news.

Samantha Fields (3:56)

The good news is that the unemployment rate is low. It's hovering just above 4% and has been for a while.

Heidi Schierholz (4:03)

Job growth is solid. Not great, but it's solid. Layoffs are low. So if you have a job, you are no more likely than usual to get laid off. So that is very good news.

Samantha Fields (4:16)

The not so good news, Scheerholz says, is that wage growth is weak and there's not much hiring going on.

Heidi Schierholz (4:23)

We are talking now about hiring rates that are roughly where they were in 2010, 2011 in that just unbelievably weak labor markets right after the Great Recession.

Samantha Fields (4:35)

You can see that in the growing number of people who are long-term unemployed. That's a number Breon Williams at the Groundwork Collaborative will be paying close attention to this week.