What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the morning session after a surprisingly weak U.S. jobs report was released, fueling concerns about a slowing economy.
The U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs, falling significantly short of economists' expectations, while figures for May and June were revised down, erasing 258,000 previously reported jobs. The professional and business services industry itself shed 14,000 jobs. This data points to a cooling labor market, fueling concerns of a slowing economy. A weaker economic outlook often leads to reduced corporate spending on key services like IT consulting and professional staffing, which directly impacts the sector's revenue and growth prospects. The report immediately increased investor expectations of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
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:
- Industrial & Environmental Services company Vestis (NYSE:VSTS) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Vestis? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Electronic Components & Manufacturing company CTS (NYSE:CTS) fell 3.2%. Is now the time to buy CTS? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Office & Commercial Furniture company MillerKnoll (NASDAQ:MLKN) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy MillerKnoll? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Electronic Components & Manufacturing company Knowles (NYSE:KN) fell 3%. Is now the time to buy Knowles? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Industrial & Environmental Services company Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) fell 3.6%. Is now the time to buy Pitney Bowes? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Pitney Bowes (PBI)
Pitney Bowes’s shares are quite volatile and have had 17 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 18 days ago when the stock gained 10.6% on the news that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced new postage rate increases set to take effect on July 13, 2025.
The USPS revealed that prices for its mailing services will rise by an average of 7.4%, which includes a 5-cent increase for a First-Class Mail Forever stamp to $0.78. For Pitney Bowes, which provides shipping and mailing technology and services, these rate hikes can be a positive catalyst. The company's metered mail solutions offer customers a discount compared to the retail stamp price, and this savings becomes more pronounced as overall rates go up. The new structure maintains a 4-cent discount for metered letters, potentially driving more businesses toward Pitney Bowes' offerings to manage and mitigate rising postage costs.
Pitney Bowes is up 56.8% since the beginning of the year, but at $11.32 per share, it is still trading 11.5% below its 52-week high of $12.79 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Pitney Bowes’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,315.
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