
162,000 Jobs In August Put A Rate Hike Back On The Table
August payrolls came in at 162,000 against a 53,000 forecast. Treasury yields jumped, stocks fell, and a September Fed rate increase is back in play.












Brian Curcio is the co-founder of Rapunzl, a financial literacy company that helps students in grades 6–12 build real money skills through a standards-aligned personal finance curriculum, a real-time stock market simulator, and free national scholarship competitions. He co-founded Rapunzl in Chicago in 2018 on a simple conviction: finance shouldn't stay locked in an “Ivory Tower,” reserved for a lucky few — every student deserves to understand money before the world asks them to use it. What started in a single Chicago high school has since reached more than 100,000 students nationwide, with a mission to ensure every student graduates high school financially literate and prepared. Brian was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2023 for his work making financial education accessible in classrooms across the country, and he reviews and shapes the ideas behind Rapunzl's educator resources and blog.

August payrolls came in at 162,000 against a 53,000 forecast. Treasury yields jumped, stocks fell, and a September Fed rate increase is back in play.

Fed Governor Waller said he could back a September hold and yields eased. Nvidia is paying $12.9B for Hugging Face. Broadcom's record quarter, explained.

Private payrolls rose just 38,000 in August, the weakest since January, even as the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.79%. The Fed's bind, explained.

Nvidia invested $3.5 billion to stay central to the AI buildout, while a Gulf flare-up pushed oil past $92 and lifted government bond yields worldwide.