What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the July jobs report showed an unexpected loss of 23,000 jobs, signaling a cooling labor market. Economists had forecast a gain of around 80,000 nonfarm payrolls.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. This weaker-than-expected data led investors to bet on the possibility of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The logic, often described as "bad news is good news" for the market, suggests that a slowing economy could deter the central bank from further rate hikes, and potentially encourage cuts to stimulate growth. This outlook generally makes borrowing cheaper for companies and increases the relative attractiveness of stocks.
Lower rates are particularly beneficial for growth companies because they reduce the discount rate applied to future earnings, boosting the present value of cash flows that extend further out.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Aerospace company Redwire (NYSE: RDW) jumped 14.8%. Is now the time to buy Redwire? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Renewable Energy company Enphase (NASDAQ: ENPH) jumped 5.2%. Is now the time to buy Enphase? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Infrastructure Distributors company Core & Main (NYSE: CNM) jumped 2.1%. Is now the time to buy Core & Main? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Waste Management company Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) jumped 3%. Is now the time to buy Republic Services? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Home Construction Materials company Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) jumped 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Owens Corning? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Redwire (RDW)
Redwire’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 100 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Redwire and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was about 23 hours ago when the stock gained 9.6% on the news that the company reported second-quarter financial results that surpassed Wall Street's revenue expectations, though its earnings per share missed estimates. The space and defense technology firm posted revenue of $117.1 million, an 89.6% increase year-over-year, which beat analyst estimates of $107.7 million. However, the company reported a GAAP loss of $0.19 per share, which was wider than the consensus estimate of a $0.15 loss. Investors appeared to focus on the positives, including a record backlog of $542.1 million and reaffirmed full-year revenue guidance with a midpoint of $475 million. Following the report, Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its Overweight rating on the stock and raised its price target to $13.50 from $9.00, signaling confidence in the company's growth trajectory.
Redwire is up 48.3% since the beginning of the year, but at $13.39 per share, it is still trading 48.3% below its 52-week high of $25.90 from May 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Redwire’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,330.
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