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:
- IT Distribution & Solutions company ePlus (NASDAQ: PLUS) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy ePlus? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Digital Media & Content Platforms company Getty Images (NYSE: GETY) fell 4%. Is now the time to buy Getty Images? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Hardware & Infrastructure company Xerox (NASDAQ: XRX) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Xerox? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Electronic Components & Manufacturing company Coherent (NYSE: COHR) fell 3.3%. Is now the time to buy Coherent? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Data & Business Process Services company Planet Labs (NYSE: PL) fell 4.6%. Is now the time to buy Planet Labs? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Planet Labs (PL)
Planet Labs’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 65 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 11 days ago when the stock gained 4.9% on continued positive momentum following a series of major contract wins in the defense and intelligence sector announced earlier in the month.
Investors are still reacting favorably to news from early July, when the company announced four significant awards for its AI-enabled solutions. The most substantial of these was a multi-year, €240 million satellite services agreement funded by the German government to enhance European peace and security. Under the deal, Planet will provide dedicated satellite capacity, data, and AI-powered solutions for situational awareness. Additionally, the company secured a seven-figure contract expansion with the U.S. Navy for Maritime Domain Awareness and an expanded agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense. This string of high-value contracts underscores the growing demand for Planet's satellite imagery and data analytics capabilities within the global security landscape, boosting investor confidence in the company's growth trajectory.
Planet Labs is up 55.2% since the beginning of the year, but at $6.16 per share, it is still trading 12.4% below its 52-week high of $7.03 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Planet Labs’s shares at the IPO in April 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $622.22.
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