Investors are moving to defensive corners of the market (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) on Thursday as fresh data sparked some concerns of too much weakness in the labor market. SoFi head of investment strategy Liz Young Thomas joins Morning Brief to discuss the market's reaction to the data and how investors can best position their portfolios as the Federal Reserve begins its rate-easing cycle. Thomas notes that "equities are still cheering for the beginning of this rate-cutting cycle" as the Fed eyes a soft landing. She explains that easing rates will likely benefit cyclical areas of the market, like small caps (^RUT), financials (XLF), real estate (XLRE), and industrials (XLI). However, she warns that "it would be premature to assume that we have secured a soft landing." Investors should still have some exposure to areas of the market that benefit from a steepening yield curve. Thomas points to gold (GC=F) as a good option as the global currency is experiencing volatility. As all eyes are on Friday's August jobs report, Thomas believes that if the data comes in cooler than expected, the market will react negatively and will likely experience a sell-off of mega-cap names. She adds that utilities are "not just a purely defensive play" at this stage, as they are a beneficiary of the AI trade. In addition, she explains that consumer staples (XLP) — another traditional defensive play — are overbought currently. If economic data continues to cool during the Fed's cutting cycle, she expects financials and real estate to continue to slow. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief. This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Gold (GC=F) has reached new all-time highs in the past month, fueled by geopolitical uncertainty, central bank buying, and US dollar weakness. Truist Co-chief Investment Officer & Chief Market Strategist Keith Lerner joins Market Domination Overtime to give insight into gold and why investors may want to add it to their portfolios. "From a portfolio diversification standpoint... we added earlier this year a modest position. And there's a couple of things. One is, from a technical perspective, it just made an all-time high. The underlying technical trends are very positive. You have central bank buying around the globe, especially with China. You still have a decent amount of geopolitical uncertainty. And it's also a hedge against dollar weakness as well," says Lerner For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime. This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Copper prices (HG=F) are sliding after Goldman Sachs lowered its price target on the precious metal commodity, telling investors to "go for gold" (GC=F) in a recent analyst note Yahoo Finance senior business reporter Ines Ferré checks out the commodities market, examining gold's price action and recent ETF inflows as more central banks buy up gold. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan