Why Palantir Stock Is Sinking Today

Palantir (PLTR -2.16%) stock is in the red in Friday's trading despite trimming some of its early losses in the session. The company's share price was down 2% at 11 a.m. ET amid a decline of 1.6% for the S&P 500 index and a 1.9% pullback for the Nasdaq Composite index. The stock had been off as much as 4.6% shortly after the market opened. The stock market is seeing a wave of bearish trading today as investors react to the latest U.S. jobs data and the impacts of tariffs on the economy. With today's modest pullback, Palantir stock is still up 105% year to date as of this writing. Image source: Getty Images. Palantir stock slips as macroeconomic outlook softens The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published its jobs data for July, and the market is having a strong bearish reaction. While the U.S. economy added 73,000 non-farm jobs last month, the growth came in well below the 100,000 net additions called for by the average economist estimate. Making matters worse, jobs growth for previous months was also revised downward. June's net non-farm payroll additions were revised from 147,000 to 14,000, and May's jobs growth was revised from 125,000 additions to 19,000. While the latest jobs data helps support the case for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its September meeting, some investors are concerned that the central bank may have waited too long to cut rates -- and that could mean valuation pressures for Palantir and other growth stocks. What's next for Palantir? Palantir is gearing up to publish its second-quarter results, which will be released after the market closes on Aug. 4. With its last performance update, Palantir guided for sales to come in between $934 million and $938 million in the second quarter. Management also guided for non-GAAP (adjusted) income from operations of between $401 million and $405 million. Palantir has built up an impressive track record of earnings beats, and investors will likely be looking for the artificial intelligence leader to significantly exceed its performance targets. With the company valued at approximately 94 times this year's expected sales and 267 times expected adjusted earnings, Palantir has an extremely growth-dependent valuation -- and its upcoming Q2 release is poised to be another big test for the stock.