Power lunch starts right now welcome to power lunch this september friday. Stocks are on session highs. The dow topping 22,000 for the first time in two weeks. Nasdaq trying for another record the s p 500 having its best week since april. All three major averages on track for a second straight week of gains check out movers wynn resorts trading at levels not seen in two years. The big news today, american jobs creating engine wilting a bit in august. Only added 156,000 jobs last month, below the 180,000 that economists expected. Senior economics reporter Steve Liesman is here to take us inside the numbers it is cooling, coasting, stabilizing . A lot of negative words used in the intro i dont know if i agree. Job growth did slow. Came in below expectations but is a decent report the population is growing at 80,000 thats what we should expect were almost double that number, still enough to take some workers off. Ism manufacturing, one of the highest numbers in a while more about that in a second. Consumer sentiment, same idea. Came down but still a strong level. Gary cohn spoke with cnbc earlier today. For a politician, his analysis wasnt much different from private sector economists. Were looking at the trend overall, looking at job growth, job creation and we see a lot of very good momentum in numbers. One numbers that went down were government always said government is going to get smaller, private sector is getting bigger. Heres data nonfarm pay rolls, what i didnt like with june jewelry visions down, average hourly wage up a tenth. Thats where the weakness is Unemployment Rate 4. 4 and labor force participation, 62. 9 not to overwhelm you with data, heres where the jobs were the manufacturing thing is interesting, up by 36,000. Construction as well up by 28,000 thats important yoyou need construction workerso rebuild in texas theres a deficit of them in the economy. Education, health and human services, 9,000 decline in government that gary cohn talked about. One more chart ism manufacturing number 58. 7 there highest number weve had in three years. Impressive. Manufacturing is where the president wanted to see job growth trying to get to detail it is fabricated metal trying to understand is this related to the president this investment number you talked about yesterday. These things i am trying to understand if it is, how much, how much can we rely on theres an awful lot of data, whats the number, over 30 data series on my excel upstairs. Going back ten years i am proud of this i am proud of the amount of data i collect and collate and give to folks weve had strength in manufacturing. That number, i think the number is over 150,000 manufacturing jobs created of late is there something going on out there we need to be aware of. Lets introduce rebecca patterson. Sorry. Thats okay rebecca patterson, viewers know talk about the market effects, eric we go and you can stick around ask the producers if it works with their plan. We were talking about policy in work, saw a jump in manufacturing jobs, saw mining jobs added, hard to remember last time we saw that. Is there a policy at work here it is interesting to see. We are seeing improved Business Confidence i think it is not only a reflection of favorable corporate results, but seeing much better tone to Global Economic activity. And i think thats something that really is contributing to that couple that with weakening dollar, and i think it creates a favorable backdrop there that truly is the Silver Lining as steve was pointing out in an otherwise tepid labor release today. Whats the lag time it would take change in currency market or realization of weaker dollar for longer for companies to say im going to start adding jobs. I think theres a lot of factors companies are thinking about before they add jobs, especially for exporters, for industries that are focused on that it is the combo, the one, two punch of weaker dollar and better growth overseas on a relative basis China Holding up better than expected, europe has momentum broadly first time in years. It is kind of a wonderful cocktail happening just to be clear, cousin company i think highly of. You did not move jobs theyre thankful for that. You think of the last month, north korea, corporate lash to charlottesville, was that all just a blip in the market . At these valuations, given how long this rally has run, we shouldnt be surprised at all to see pull backs in the market on some of these risks or perceived risks, as long as the underlying economy is doing well, what steve has been talking about, we have good confidence, decent job growth, low Unemployment Rate, usually these are opportunities to put money to work also nonexistent inflation in the way the fed thinks of it you can look at this number, say Interest Rate hikes, maybe not as many as expected. Is it possible are we going to see changes . Good number, but not gang busters and inflation is tame. Four things have gone on. Earnings are better, economy is doing pretty well, and inflation has really come out of the discussion here. Its come quite a bit down then add on top of that whats happened, the World Economy is doing better and thats helped. You can add tenths of a point and build up from the 1. 8 underlying gdp growth and get to where we are now, this 2. 5 to 3 range, a little better if all those things keep working in our favor. Eric, if worried about the fed hiking Interest Rates, putting an end to the rally in some way, you dont see a lot of that in these numbers now. Look at whats going on with ten year yield you can let multiples sit widely here. No doubt about it thats what it comes down to i agree with earlier commentary. Our view is investors are looking at reality versus rhetoric while the risks are certainly elevated, the reality of favorable economic backdrop and strong Earnings Growth, we were talking about lag effect of the dollar impacting earnings moments ago. Whats interesting, this time last year, listening to corporate earnings, they were talking about head winds of anywhere from mid to high Single Digits as far as currency impact they were experiencing seeing a more favorable earnings backdrop for the second half has us believing we will continue to see markets move laterally, perhaps choppy over the next month, but with bias higher, low inflationary environment where we dont see risk of recession on the horizon. Want to let everybody know, we are waiting to see if there was decision on the Immigration Program thats controversial, daca President Trump told reporters, i believe we will see it on tape that a decision on daca will happen today or this weekend theres a deadline there are attorneys general that want to file suit against the daca program which is deferred action on childhood arrivals, thats what the acronym is about, this is about people brought to the United States under the age of 16 and would like to stay in the United States, theyre adults and working. So we are waiting to see he has gone back and forth on this it has been controversial in the Republican Party thought we would get an answer today, now it is not clear if that will happen or happen over the weekend. Doesnt say which way theyre leaning. As of today, speaker ryan said he doesnt think the program should be changed. Senator orrin hatch, senior republican in the senate said he thinks it would be the wrong plan to roll it back executives have come in on a strong way. Unless american women start having lots more babies, we need immigrants so we can have a labor force if we want to keep gdp numbers high. One caveat is that republicans are concerned it was done Via Executive order they believe it was outside the law. Speaker ryan put an asterisk and said Congress Needs to take care of this. This needs to be legislated. Hold my breath while Congress Takes care of this. Speaking of congress, eric, you mention choppiness in september. There are a lot of deadlines on the horizon. Would you be buying treasuries that come up for maturity early october . Our view continues to be we advise clients to be slightly short at duration, depending on investment objective we do think potentially with the fed beginning to roll off its Balance Sheet and what we ultimately believe will be more consistent Economic Growth and some building inflation, that rates will trend higher. You know, were not expecting a rapid acceleration or rising in rates, but as a result we are tending to be short of duration and maintain bias toward equities. I get that the environment for markets, it is almost a goldilocks environment, growth here, growth abroad, feds at bay, et cetera, et cetera, Interest Rates are low, valuations can be high as michelle pointed out at the same time, we have a tricky september you have the fed winding down its Balance Sheet, ecb meeting next week which could send ripples through the currency market. The debt ceiling. The list goes on and on for the month of september what do you do in the near term . I think whats interesting is often we have an event, big fed meeting. Now we have four or five potentially critical events happening in a four or five week window so fine, debt ceiling in the past took the market down, the shutdown took the market down a bit. What if you get two or three risks becoming reality im sorry, the president is speaking thank you very much, everybody. Whats your decision on daca, mr. President . A decision on daca sometime today or over the weekend well have a decision. We love the dreamers, we love everybody. Thank you very much. Well issue it sometime over the weekend, maybe this afternoon. Were working on emergency funding. Were doing everything we can and were working well with the governor who has done a terrific job. Thank you very much, everybody thank you, have a good afternoon. On tape, confirmation of what we got from the wires, the president saying maybe well make a decision today or over the weekend over the daca program, deferred action for childhood arrivals, commonly referred to as the dreamers, as you heard him say, we love the dreamers, and talking emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey john harwood, john, as you see the president is struggling with the decision because he said various things about the dreamer program. Exactly right for the reasons that kayla was mentioning, its a difficult challenge. The Republican Party knows that it has to improve its image among latino voters to thrive in the long run, so you have Party Leaders like orrin hatch and paul ryan, House Speaker saying no, lets dont do this right now, but President Trump himself and a lot of the people around him feel they want to crackdown on this program. He constructed a political image as tough guy on immigration. There are a lot of people in the base of the Republican Party who say that people came here illegally, we have to enforce the law and are absolutist about that, and thats the rub in the president , and clearly he hasnt been able to makeup his mind as of yet, he says hell get the decision today or over the weekend. Weve seen in the past, the president announced impending decisions that dont come out as quickly as he says, but we have to wait and see. John, weve also seen the white house taking to the late friday afternoon or evening news cycle. Do you think this is a summer trend or something that they find as a certain comfort zone well, they might find it as a comfort zone, but it really doesnt work thats an idea that maybe was relevant back when i was covering the Ronald Reagan white house or bill Clinton White house and we didnt have the channels of communication that we have now, but information spreads so rapidly and so widely to the targeted audiences, you can have the intention of burying something on a friday afternoon and think people arent going to notice, but theyre going to notice. Well said john, thank you. Time for the report. Unchanged at 759 for the week of september 1st still up from 352 versus a year ago. Seems like oil drillers were anticipating the impact of harvey and made no changes to their count, prior to this being released, wti was down about 17 cents, down similar amount now michelle, back to you. Thank you very much rebecca is with us for the hour. Good to have you. Up next, millions of americans get set to hit the road for the holiday, theyll feel the financial pinch from Hurricane Harvey details on the gas price spike after the break. Millions of americans gearing up for beginning of fall travel sports season soccer, football, gymnastics, you name it. Were going to take you to whats an incredibly booming business up 50 in the last seven years dont move hey gary, what are you doing . Oh hey john, im connecting our brains so we can share our amazing trading knowledge. Thats a great idea, but why dont you just go to thinkorswims chat rooms where you can share strategies, ideas, even actual trades with market professionals and thousands of other traders . I know. Your brain told my brain before you told my face. Mmm, blueberry . Tap into the knowledge of other traders on thinkorswim. Only at td ameritrade. Track your pack. Set a curfew, or two. Make dinnertime device free. [ music stops ] [ music plays again ] a smarter way to wifi is awesome. 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Lets get to texas for an update on hurricane recovery erts the story continues to be the Chemical Plant where fires are expected to continue reporter thats right, we are trying to sort out the questions that were raised the ceo says the company is being open and transparent, to that end the Company Released pictures of the flooded plant and the issue is that with six feet of water that they did not expect, they say, it took out all the power, the backup generators c generators so they put this volatile chemical into refrigerator trucks, but the refrigeration is gone we know one fire has basically burned itself out, took about nine hours there are 8 other trucks, and only a matter of time before they go up we also know now according to this companys new transparency as they put it, whats in the plant in broad terms, put out a list including organic peroxides, thats the chemical in question, the amount larger than originally stated, about a half million pounds. And also perhaps of more concern, sulfur dioxide, and isoamylene we dont know what the quantity is, they wont say what the quantity is, those are listed as hazardous chemicals. The company says it was everything thats there that dictated this response we are providing federal, state and local responders with the information that they need to make the decisions on facts as they exist today. And thats what resulted in the 1. 5 mile evacuation zone reporter and thats the key here, questions that a lot of people that live, work, own businesses around here are raising. You heard a one and a half mile evacuation zone, and yet the company says the only danger is some throat irritation if this catches fire but take a look at what one and a half miles mean. The plant is that way, the water to your on the horizon thats a Long Distance to avoid people having a sore throat, thats what people raise questions about. In addition to 300 or so people who live around here and have been evacuated indefinitely, there are businesses, people that own livestock they havent been able to get to in several days there are potentially big losses here, and as i said, right now, more questions than answers. Guys thank you scott cohn in crosby, texas. Beyond the devastation on the gulf coast, the storm is starting to take a toll on gas prices across america. Fuel surging to two year highs, Convenience Stores sell about 80 of our nations fuel joining us to talk about the price spike and potential shortages, jeff leonard from strategic industry initiatives with National Association of Convenience Stores jeff, great to have you with us. Thanks for having me. Are we seeing at this point any fuel shortages in the country, do you expect that in the coming days . There are outages across the country. One of those in dallas that we heard about. Thats a combination of supply and demand certainly supply is down with 125 refineries being shut down and capacity off about a quarter, but were also seeing spike in demand. The system is not set up for everybody to be riding around with a full tank of gas. We have a High Percentage of people filling their tanks that means there are more people with less fuel available best way to remediate that, combination supply and demand. What we are saying, buy as normally scheduled, dont top off your tank, dont fill up extra gas cans i want to talk about the other impact for the Convenience Stores obviously Convenience Stores sell a lot of things in addition to gas rely on people to pull into the gas station, fill up the tank and go in there, buy a pack of cigarettes or soda or Something Like that. Were seeing spikes across the country when it comes to fuel prices how is that impacting what consumers spend at the Convenience Stores themselves . What are the Convenience Stores facing now well, you see the higher prices because of higher wholesale prices, they pass on the prices, in some cases absorbing some of the prices, nobody wants to be the highest price, people are st