The Dow Jones (DJIA) has displayed muted price action on Monday and is still less than 1% from its all-time high of 45,770.20, despite a concerning employment survey.
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The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) fell to 106.41 in August, reaching its lowest level since 2021. Additionally, consumers who believe that “jobs are hard to get” touched 20%, also the highest rate since 2021. That follows Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, which showed just 22,000 new jobs in August, dramatically below the expectation for 75,000 additions.
“While the labor market remained resilient over much of this year, six of eight ETI components were negative in both July and August for the first time since November 2024,” said Mitchell Barns, an economist at The Conference Board. “This potentially marks a turning point, where business activity is slowing more materially to reflect softer business confidence levels.”
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has echoed President Trump’s warning that voiding tariffs would cause harm to the U.S. economy. “We would have to give a refund on about half the tariffs, which would be terrible for the Treasury,” Bessent said. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that a majority of Trump’s tariffs overstepped his legal authority, although the tariffs will remain in place until October 14. In the meantime, Trump has requested an expedited appeal process with the Supreme Court and seeks to begin arguments in November.
These tariffs have resulted in sizable trade shifts across the globe. Last month, China’s exports to the U.S. plunged by 33%, although its overall exports grew by 4.4% year-over-year in dollar terms. That comes as the U.S. ramps up its efforts to target transshipments, which are shipments routed through third countries to evade tariffs and other trade restrictions.
The Dow Jones is up by 0.01% at the time of writing.
Which Stocks are Moving the Dow Jones?
Let’s pivot to TipRanks’ Dow Jones Heatmap, which illustrates the stocks that have contributed to the index’s price action.
Nvidia (NVDA) is trading higher, shrugging off a price target reduction from Citi. Analysts led by Atif Malik lowered the company’s price target to $200 from $210, citing increased competition from Broadcom (AVGO). Malik added that the firm’s estimates do not include revenue from China, “which could be a source of upside if and when Nvidia restarts GPU shipments to China.”
In the healthcare sector, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is the only company in the green. UNH is up by nearly 30% during the past month, spurred by an ownership disclosure from Warren Buffett. Investors are betting that the worst is over for the embattled healthcare company, which is still under investigation by the Department of Justice.
Elsewhere, Magnificent 7 members Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) are in positive territory, while Apple (AAPL) is down by about 1%.
DIA Stock Moves Higher with the Dow Jones
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the movement of the Dow Jones. As a result, DIA is rising alongside the Dow Jones today.
Wall Street believes that DIA stock has room to rise. During the past three months, analysts have issued an average DIA price target of $500.04, implying upside of 10.04% from current prices. The 31 stocks in DIA carry 29 buy ratings, two hold ratings, and zero sell ratings.