What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a significant downward revision of U.S. job creation data raised concerns about the health of the economy. 

The Labor Department reported that employers added 911,000 fewer jobs from April 2024 through March 2025 than initially estimated. This revision brings the average monthly job gains during that period down significantly, suggesting a cooler labor market. The downgrades were widespread across various service sectors. The largest revisions were seen in leisure and hospitality, which added 176,000 fewer jobs than first reported, followed by professional and business services and retail. Such data is closely watched by investors and economists as it can influence the Federal Reserve's decisions on interest rates. JPMorgan Chase CEO 

Jamie Dimon added that the U.S. economy is "weakening," though he stopped short of predicting a recession. "Whether it's on the way to recession or just weakening, I don't know," he said. Dimon's remarks are closely watched, given his influence as head of one of the nation's largest banks.

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:

• Apparel Retailer company Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) fell 2.7%. Is now the time to buy Urban Outfitters? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Apparel Retailer company Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) fell 2.8%. Is now the time to buy Zumiez? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On Zumiez (ZUMZ)

Zumiez’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 35 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 4 days ago when the stock gained 13.7% on the news that the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and issued a strong forecast for the third quarter. The company announced second-quarter net sales of $214.3 million, a 1.9% increase year-over-year, which surpassed analyst estimates. 

While Zumiez posted a net loss of $0.06 per share, this result represented a significant earnings surprise, beating the consensus estimate for a loss of $0.11 per share. The primary catalyst for the stock's jump was the company's optimistic outlook. For the third quarter, Zumiez expects revenue between $232 million and $237 million and earnings per share from $0.19 to $0.29. Both projections were well above Wall Street's consensus of $224.1 million in revenue and $0.15 in earnings per share.

Zumiez is up 10% since the beginning of the year, but at $20.87 per share, it is still trading 14.8% below its 52-week high of $24.48 from September 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Zumiez’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $775.46.

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