Market Commentary - Fri, Aug 07 - 9:46 AM ET

Market Commentary - Fri, Aug 07 - 9:46 AM ET Employment headlines lead the news this morning, as the official Jobs Report revealed the US lost fewer jobs than expected in July. The markets had been expecting a loss of 328,000 but instead were greeted this morning with a loss of only 247,000, which is the lowest number of jobs lost in almost a year. Making matters even better, the numbers for May and June were revised to indicate that 43,000 fewer jobs were lost than originally reported. All of this news added up to a slight drop in the unemployment rate--which decreased from 9.5% the previous month to 9.4%. This marks the first time the jobless rate has fallen in 15 months. The better-than-expected Jobs Report gave stocks a boost in early trading this morning. In addition, the US Dollar rose against the Euro, as the positive economic news fueled speculation that demand for US equities would increase. Rounding out the positive headlines this morning was news that AIG posted its first quarterly profit in nearly two years. After receiving $180 Billion in Federal aide at one time, the company reported second-quarter net earnings of $1.8 Billion. That's a huge improvement over the $5.4 Billion net loss that AIG reported this time last year.