End of Week Market Intelligence laborious

Equity Research 4 September 2026 | 11:32AM EDT

End of Week Market Intelligence: laborious

US stocks are trading lower Friday and on pace for an unchanged week (for the S&P Chris Hussey | 500 as of Friday at 11:15AM) as investors have been digesting 3 major data points Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC this week: a declining ISM Manufacturing Index, a solid-albeit-not-spectacular Sarah Herr quarterly earnings report from AVGO, and today’s very strong Payrolls release. | Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

the mosaic got three more tiles The last week of summer leading into Labor Day is always a bit of an unreliable trading week as so many market participants are squeezing out the last days of summer before going ‘back to school’ next week. And this past week had a bit of that feel in equities — although, perhaps, there is nothing unreliable about ‘no change.’.

For bonds, however, the steady rise in 10-year Treasury yields continues to paint a more stressed picture than what we are seeing in stocks. And Christian Mueller-Glissmann warns that further upside for equities is more likely to require lower rates than stronger growth in a fresh GOAL this week, “Rotation moderation — remain OW equities for 12m but tactically more defensive.” Said differently, bond markets have become a speed limiter for equities. Longer-dated bonds remain under pressure from fiscal concerns, competition for capital from AI investment, and sticky inflation — all reducing central banks’ ability to ease.

Equity markets will not have long to wait to see what the next move from the Fed is, however, as the FOMC is scheduled to meet on Sep-15-16 with a statement due out on the afternoon of the 16th — only 7 trading sessions from now. The mosaic of inflation, growth, and fiscal constraints will all be on the minds of Fed members. And this week brought some interesting data points to help assess that growth/inflation mosaic, including:

1. Growth. The ISM Manufacturing Index dipped 1 point to 54.6 in the latest survey, with decreases in the new orders, production and employment components (see “USA: ISM Manufacturing Below Expectations; Job Openings Roughly in Line With Expectations; Construction Spending Below Expectations”). Business sentiment, however, held up much better in the regional surveys we saw over the course of August, so our manufacturing survey tracker has actually reached in August its highest level since April 2022. 2. AI. This week we saw signs of economic progress from a company that utilizes AI,

Goldman Sachs does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision. For Reg AC certification and other important disclosures, see the Disclosure Appendix, or go to Analysts employed by non-US affiliates are not registered/qualified as research analysts with FINRA in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs End of Week Market Intelligence

not just one that is building facilities to house it. SNOW reported revenue 5% better than expected and margins 270bp better as Gabriela Borges discusses in “SNOW: AI-driven inflections support structurally higher medium-term growth.” We view SNOW as a key beneficiary of both AI-driven cloud migration and new AI use cases enabled by products such as Snowflake Intelligence and CoCo. Plus we see upside to numbers over the next 18 months. Separately, AVGO reported in-line to better-than-expected results for the July quarter but set guidance just below the Street for its fiscal 4Q (ends Oct), causing some pressure on the stock (see Jim Schneider’s “AVGO: Strong AI revenue forecast through 2028 with increasing customer diversification should drive the stock higher”). We remain Buy-rated, however, as we think AVGO’s very strong AI revenue outlook through FY28 is likely to even be exceeded. 3. Employment. August non-farm Payrolls increased by 162k in August, well above expectations, and were revised higher in both July and June (see “USA: Payroll Growth Well Above Expectations and Revised Higher for Prior Months…