{"id":67016,"date":"2026-08-25T08:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-labor-market-shows-resilience-as-amd-and-tech-sector-lead-pre-market-gains\/67016\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:38:17","slug":"us-labor-market-shows-resilience-as-amd-and-tech-sector-lead-pre-market-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-labor-market-shows-resilience-as-amd-and-tech-sector-lead-pre-market-gains\/67016\/","title":{"rendered":"US Labor Market Shows Resilience as AMD and Tech Sector Lead Pre-Market Gains"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>US private hiring accelerated<\/strong> in early August, with the <strong>ADP Weekly Employment Change<\/strong> rising to <strong>11,750<\/strong> from a previous <strong>9,500<\/strong>, signaling a modest rebound in labor demand.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced Micro Devices (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMD\">AMD<\/a>)<\/strong> shares surged <strong>2.9%<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/movers\/premarket\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">pre-market<\/a> following a <strong>Raymond James<\/strong> upgrade to <strong>&#39;Strong Buy&#39;<\/strong> and a price target hike to <strong>$641<\/strong>, with analysts predicting the company will overtake <strong>Intel (<a href=\"\/stock\/INTC\">INTC<\/a>)<\/strong> in the CPU market by 2027.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dick&#39;s Sporting Goods (<a href=\"\/stock\/DKS\">DKS<\/a>)<\/strong> plummeted <strong>13%<\/strong> in early trading after reporting a <strong>Q2 earnings miss<\/strong> and slashing its full-year guidance, citing promotional pressures and weakness in its recently acquired <strong>Foot Locker<\/strong> segment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The National Bank of Hungary<\/strong> reduced its base rate by <strong>25 basis points to 5.50%<\/strong>, continuing its easing cycle as domestic inflation fell to its lowest level in a decade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tesla (<a href=\"\/stock\/TSLA\">TSLA<\/a>)<\/strong> gained <strong>0.5%<\/strong> after raising US prices for two <strong>Cybertruck<\/strong> variants by <strong>$5,000<\/strong>, while <strong>Alibaba (<a href=\"\/stock\/BABA\">BABA<\/a>)<\/strong> rose on news that founder <strong>Jack Ma<\/strong> purchased <strong>HKD 600 million<\/strong> in shares.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>US Labor Market and Interest Rates<\/h2>\n<p>The US labor market showed signs of stabilization as the <strong>ADP Weekly Employment Change<\/strong> for the week ending August 8 came in at <strong>11,750<\/strong>, up from the previous week&#39;s <strong>9,500<\/strong>. This four-week moving average suggests that while hiring has cooled from earlier in the year, private employers are still expanding payrolls at a steady pace.<\/p>\n<p>In the credit markets, the <strong>Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)<\/strong> remained steady at <strong>3.65%<\/strong> for the period of August 21 to August 24. This stability in the benchmark rate reflects a calm period in overnight Treasury-backed funding markets as traders look ahead to upcoming Federal Reserve commentary.<\/p>\n<h2>Tech and Semiconductor Momentum<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Advanced Micro Devices (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMD\">AMD<\/a>)<\/strong> is a standout performer this morning, rising <strong>2.9%<\/strong> to <strong>$470.34<\/strong>. <strong>Raymond James<\/strong> analyst Simon Leopold highlighted the company&#39;s &quot;AI Factory&quot; framework, projecting the server CPU market will reach <strong>$201 billion<\/strong> by 2030 and noting that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/AMD\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"stock: AMD\">AMD<\/a><\/strong> is poised to capture significant market share from <strong>Intel (<a href=\"\/stock\/INTC\">INTC<\/a>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The broader memory sector is also rebounding from Monday&#39;s sell-off, with the <strong>DRAM ETF<\/strong> rising <strong>4%<\/strong>. Key players in the space, including <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/MU\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"20\" title=\"Stock: MU\">Micron<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/MU\">MU<\/a>)<\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/SNDK\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"19\" title=\"Stock: SNDK\">SanDisk<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/SNDK\">SNDK<\/a>)<\/strong>, and <strong>Western Digital (<a href=\"\/stock\/WDC\">WDC<\/a>)<\/strong>, all posted <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/movers\/premarket\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">pre-market<\/a> gains ranging from <strong>2.6% to 4.2%<\/strong> as investors buy the dip in hardware stocks.<\/p>\n<h2>Retail and Corporate Developments<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Dick&#39;s Sporting Goods (<a href=\"\/stock\/DKS\">DKS<\/a>)<\/strong> faced heavy selling pressure, dropping <strong>13%<\/strong> after its second-quarter results failed to meet expectations. The retailer reported an adjusted EPS of <strong>$3.53<\/strong>, missing the <strong>$3.74<\/strong> analyst consensus, and lowered its full-year outlook due to a <strong>3.6%<\/strong> comparable sales decline at its <strong>Foot Locker<\/strong> division.<\/p>\n<p>In the airline sector, <strong>United Airlines (<a href=\"\/stock\/UAL\">UAL<\/a>)<\/strong> climbed <strong>2.8%<\/strong> after announcing the largest international network expansion in the company&#39;s history. Meanwhile, <strong>Alibaba (<a href=\"\/stock\/BABA\">BABA<\/a>)<\/strong> shares rose <strong>0.5%<\/strong> following reports that <strong>Jack Ma<\/strong> increased his stake in the e-commerce giant, providing a boost to investor confidence in the Chinese tech sector.<\/p>\n<h2>International Monetary Policy<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Hungary&#39;s central bank<\/strong> delivered a widely anticipated <strong>25-basis-point cut<\/strong>, bringing its base rate down to <strong>5.50%<\/strong>. This marks the third consecutive reduction in a &quot;mini-cycle&quot; of easing, supported by a significant drop in inflation to <strong>1.2%<\/strong> in July. The bank indicated that further moves would depend on updated macroeconomic projections scheduled for September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways US private hiring accelerated in early August, with the ADP Weekly Employment Change rising to 11,750 from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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