• Markets: Stocks were back in “good news is bad news” territory yesterday, falling as investors digested the news that the US added more jobs than expected in August, potentially making the Fed more likely to hike rates (more on that below).

• Stock spotlight: Lululemon did a downward-facing dog after cutting its revenue and profit guidance and reporting disappointing Q2 sales.

GREAT JOB

Francis Scialabba

August blindsided everyone, and not just by how fast summer ended: The US added 162,000 jobs last month, according to government data released yesterday. That’s more than triple the number that economists polled by Dow Jones predicted.

Plus, the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%, and the share of Americans who gave up on looking for work or worked part time due to a lack of full-time options dropped slightly.

Unlike in prior months, the job gains weren’t mostly in healthcare:

• Restaurants and bars added 59,000 workers. Construction and manufacturing payrolls grew by 22,000 and 16,000, respectively, while public schools gained 42,000 employees, rebounding from July’s decline.
• But the information sector—which includes tech jobs—shed 23,000 workers, which some analysts said could reflect AI automating white-collar work.

Overall: After job growth was revised upward by a total of 55,000 for the previous two months, the US added an average of 80,000 jobs monthly so far in 2026—an improvement from less than 10,000 per month last year, but below the pace of hiring in 2023 and 2024.

It’s not all rosy: Inflation outpaced the yearly wage growth, which slowed to 3.1%, down from 3.7% pay growth a year ago.

Stronger case to hike interest rates

Analysts say that now that the job market looks healthier, the Fed will focus on inflation data due next week as it mulls whether to hike interest rates at its next meeting on Sept. 16.

Wall Street thinks a rate hike has become more likely: The trading odds of a rate hike increased from 49% to 59% yesterday. The 2-year Treasury bond yield—which is closely correlated with the interest rates the Fed sets—also rose yesterday.

But President Trump issued a blistering threat…that if the Fed doesn’t react to the employment rebound by slashing interest rates, he’ll end trade with nations that have a trade deficit with the US—a long list that includes the EU and China.—SK

      

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World

Tour de headlines

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

⛽ US diesel prices hit a record high. US diesel prices reached an all-time high of $5.85 per gallon yesterday, as the Iran war continues to drive up energy costs. Diesel is most commonly used in the US by commercial vehicles, including trucks and trains. But those increased fuel costs impact consumer goods by upping the transportation costs for items like groceries and packages ordered online, resulting in higher prices. Gasoline prices have also been rising, though not as quickly as diesel prices. Gas cost an average of $4.15 a gallon as of yesterday—and has never before cost more than $4 on Labor Day, per AAA.

⚖️ Mistrial declared in Lindsay Clancy murder case. The trial of Clancy—who killed her three children in 2023 in what the defense claimed was postpartum psychosis and prosecutors claimed was intentional murder—ended in a mistrial yesterday, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on their seventh day of deliberations. The judge, who refused to remove what the jury foreperson reportedly described as the lone juror holding out against an acquittal, gave the defense a brief opportunity to appeal to a higher court, but declared a mistrial when the appeal was rejected. Prosecutors will now have to decide whether to retry the high-profile case, and Clancy is likely to remain institutionalized for now.

🏀 Controversial WNBA commissioner to retire. The basketball league said yesterday that its commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, will retire at the end of this year. Her successor has not yet been named. Engelbert, who was the league’s first commissioner, oversaw a period of major growth for women’s basketball during her seven years at the helm, with viewership skyrocketing and an expansion of the number of teams in the league. The average value of a WNBA franchise was $10 million in 2019—now, it’s $460 million, according to ESPN. But Engelbert’s leadership also drew strong criticism from players concerning compensation and the league’s response to harassment.—AR

BEER BURGLARS

Unsplash

Pabst Blue Ribbon is using a recent beer heist to tap into the zeitgeist. This week, the lager-maker spun a theft of its cargo into a marketing campaign, offering up to $20,000 as a reward for information that helps track down a frat house’s worth of beer that got snatched last month.

ICYMI: In two back-to-back swipes, brewski thieves stole more than 1,500 cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and non-alcoholic Old Milwaukee beer—snagging a total of approximately 34,000 cans, worth ~$70,000—from a Southern California warehouse. One shipment of beer vanished en route to Arizona, while another was picked up by a group that forged documents to pose as a subcontracting company, according to local police.

“Kudos to them, perhaps. I’m sure they look cool with a garage full of PBR,” Pabst CEO Greig DeBow said in a TikTok post announcing the bounty and asking the thieves to return the beer. Pabst has posted several times since getting its cans pilfered to lightheartedly ask the public to keep its eyes peeled for a “missing truck.”

Getting robbed is the hot new marketing campaign: PBR is following in the footsteps of KitKat, which similarly capitalized with social media posts and even a “Stolen KitKat Tracker” after thieves snagged 400,000+ candy bars earlier this year. The campaign earned a Cannes Lions trophy this summer.—ML

      

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ICYMI

Have you heard...

Here’s everything that didn’t make it into this week’s newsletters but we immediately sent to the group chat.

➡️ To break a tie in a town council election in Arizona, two candidates drew from a deck of cards, with the council seat going to the person who pulled the highest card. That means we’re deciding elections in the same way Monica and Rachel lost their apartment to Chandler and Joey.

➡️ According to the latest odds from Kalshi, Matt Damon (The Odyssey) and John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine) are the favorites to win the Oscar for best actor in 2027. It’s wild to think some consider those performances more convincing than the guy who pretended to be a 49ers football player for four years.

➡️ During the same week Kelly Clarkson taped her final talk show, Amelia Dimoldenberg said she was bringing an end to Chicken Shop Date after 12 years. Proving the superstition that bad news comes in threes, Jimmy Fallon announced all new shows starting next week.

➡️ A new study said 35% of Gen Z respondents don’t know how to drive a stick shift, compared to just 9% of boomers. In perhaps related news, boomers can afford cars and Gen Z needs three jobs to afford a studio apartment with four roommates.

➡️ The Chicago Cubs are producing a scripted rom-com show for TikTok called Nine Innings to Love, where fans find romance at a game. The Mets are making a similar show called Nine Innings to Oh My God I Can’t Take It Anymore Please God Can We Leave Already.—DL

Reader Poll

News

• Federal regulators said they’d opened a probe into whether Tesla’s steering-wheel-free Cybercabs comply with safety rules one day after Elon Musk announced the vehicles were on the streets in Austin.
• Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is considering selling off much of its US Treasury bond holdings.
• A watchdog report accused former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer of inappropriate conduct, including drinking on the job and charging the government for personal travel.
• Argentine President Javier Milei ratcheted up tensions with the UK over the Falkland Islands, vowing to stop an oil project near the British-controlled territory.
• China’s Xi Jinping is planning to bring a delegation of CEOs with him when he visits the US later this month.
• Serena and Venus Williams lost a match tiebreaker during their return to the US Open for women’s doubles.

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Community

Crowd work

Last week, we asked, “What’s the most fun school assignment you’ve ever had to do?” Here are some of our favorite responses:

• “My sixth-grade science teacher taught us a lesson on writing precise instructions. We each had to write down how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then swap papers and follow the directions exactly as written. Out of the entire class, only one student remembered to write, ‘Get a knife.’ The rest of us were using our fingers and hands to spread the peanut butter and jelly on the bread!”—Ashley from Atlanta, GA
• “In fourth grade, we had to write a letter to the author of a favorite book. My favorite book at the time was James and the Giant Peach, so I wrote to Roald Dahl and told him how much I loved the book. To my great surprise, Roald Dahl wrote me back right away! Not only was I one of the few students who got a reply, but Roald started his letter to me with ‘My darling Wende.’ I felt so special. I still have the letter!”—Wende from Canandaigua, NY
• “My high school English class did a mock trial where Frankenstein’s monster sued the doctor for emotional distress or something to that effect. Not trying to brag, but I won as the defense attorney and proceeded to never do anything relating to law work again.”—Tom from Pittsburgh, PA
• “I took an AP Journalism class my senior year, and for one of the assignments I chose to spend 24 hours straight in our local Denny’s (I’m from a small town). I interviewed customers and staff throughout the day and night, worked in some history of that specific site and the Denny’s chain overall, and drank way too much coffee. It culminated in an 8-page ‘day in the life’ piece that showcased the wonderfully unique people and vibe that was our 24-hour Denny’s. I got an ‘A.’”—Whitney from Manhattan, KS

This week’s question

What’s something beautiful you saw recently that made an impression?

Sam’s answer to get the juices flowing: “On a recent trip to a flea market, I spotted a statuette of a lady dressed in a flowing trench coat made out of rough-sawn wood, while her hands and behatted head were molded from clay. The unusual combination of the two materials into such an elegant form made it not just an ordinary trinket, but a sculptural masterpiece.”

Submit your response here.

recs

• The right way to clean your water bottle, according to microbiology experts.
• Imagine being someone else with this site that puts a human life together at random from real data.
• See how US home prices have changed from 1985 to 2025.
• It’s not too early to start getting spooky.**

^{*A message from our sponsor. **This is a product recommendation from our writers. When you buy through this link, Morning Brew may earn a commission.}

Play

Brew Crossword: The latest edition of our big puzzle is called “Cultural Exchange.” Hope you remember your homophones! Play the Crossword here.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section searching for the perfect porch. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.

Today’s homestead is a piece of Wytheville, VA, history. While the main home was built in 1908 (and has been updated with modern touches since then), the original stone home on the property is even older. Local legend and Revolutionary War veteran Lt. John Crockett settled the land and built it in the late 1700s. Amenities include:

• 5 beds, 4.5 baths
• Babbling creek
• Two fridges that would give a pioneer a heart attack

How much for this historic farm?

Answer

$1.5 million

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: bounty, meaning “a financial reward paid for a specific service.” Thanks to Alexa from New Orleans for the profitable suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.