Inflation, earnings and Mueller probe may crimp US stock gains
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US STOCKS hit new records last week after a surprisingly strong jobs report put a spring in the step of the ageing bull.
It's likely the gradual creep higher will continue this week, unless there's a revival in inflation or media and retailers' earnings reports are even worse than feared. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading at 22,000 - roughly three times its 2009 low - some market veterans feel that the bull market is vulnerable, heading into a seasonal soft patch - the dog days of August and September.
US employers added 209,000 people to their payrolls in July, bringing the unemployment rate to a new 16-year low of 4.3 per cent. For stock bulls, the report was neither too hot nor too cold, because wage inflation remained stuck at 2.5 per cent.
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