Markets Gear Up for August Jobs Report on Friday

The markets await the August jobs report, on Friday, September 2. This is the final employment report before the Federal Reserve's all-important September meeting. While analysts are excepting a slowdown from the blowout 255,000 positions created in July, Friday's reading, released at 8:30 a.m. EDT, is still expected to come in relatively strong. 'We're looking for 180,000 jobs created in August,' said Emanuella Enenajor, sr. economist, North America, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 'It would be a bit of a slowdown from the last couple of readings, but it would be more in line with the six-month trend.' Aside from the jobs report, the markets also await international trade data for July, released at 8:30 a.m., along with factory orders for July at 10 a.m. The weekly Baker-Hughes (BHI) rig count is released at 1 p.m. TheStreet's Scott Gamm reports from Wall Street.