U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on September 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. <\/p>\n
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London. <\/p>\n
The midterms are looming, and the war with Iran has become a key campaign issue as voters go to the polls.<\/p>\n
The state of the economy and the jobs market will also determine how voters approach this election, due to be held on November 3.<\/p>\n
U.S. Vice President JD Vance has weighed in on both overnight, and the response has been mixed. <\/p>\n
Read on for more.<\/p>\n
What you need to know today<\/p>\n “I wouldn’t call it a war.” The words of U.S. Vice President JD Vance<\/a> when asked if America’s conflict with Iran would be over before the midterm elections in November. “Right now there is no active shooting. I recognize there’s been places where this has flared up,” he said, while declining to provide a timeline for when hostilities could cease. <\/p>\n His comments drew sharp criticism from Democrats, with Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari taking to X.com<\/a> to describe it as “profoundly disrespectful to the loved ones of the 18 American service members who’ve died for Trump’s war of choice.”<\/p>\n On Thursday, President Donald Trump<\/a> himself called it a war, in a Truth Social<\/a> post saying, “the people and Media Outlets that keep harping on the fact that we have no ammunition (And they are 100% wrong!), are actually treasonous. They do it because they would rather see the United States LOSE a War that we’re easily WINNING, than see me WIN!”<\/p>\n Rate pressure<\/p>\n Vance also weighed in on the path of interest rates<\/a>, saying he believed the Federal Reserve should be lowering rates, adding, “we’re doing a lot of things to try to keep those interest rates down, but it would be nice to have some help from the Federal Reserve.”<\/p>\n The Fed is due to hold its next rate-setting meeting on September 15-16. Last week, Chairman Kevin Warsh said he is\u00a0committed to bringing the inflation rate back<\/a>\u00a0down to the Fed’s 2% target and sees interest rates as the key tool to rein it in.<\/p>\n Watch Squawk Box Europe for the view from Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian, catch that interview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Jobless summer?<\/p>\n The big data point for Friday will be the August jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to increase by 53,000 following what is being called a “jobless summer.”<\/a> The figures for last month, alongside weaker counts for June and July, suggest a labor market that is in a low-hire, low-fire pattern. <\/p>\n Ahead of that release, U.S. futures are little changed<\/a> after a relatively flat session on Wall Street on Thursday. <\/p>\n VW’s drastic changes<\/p>\n In corporate news, the board of German auto giant VW<\/a> has approved a large-scale restructuring plan<\/a> which will include cutting another 50,000 jobs. The massive reset comes as the group tackles competition from China and the impact of trade tariffs.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, CNBC spoke to VW’s union representative; catch that interview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u2014 Leonie Kidd<\/p>\n And Finally…<\/p>\n Revenge of the \u2018Magnificent Seven\u2019 \u2014 Jim Cramer says it\u2019s time to buy<\/a><\/p>\n CNBC’s\u00a0Jim Cramer<\/a>\u00a0said Thursday it’s time to revisit the\u00a0“Magnificent Seven,”<\/a>\u00a0declaring that months of underperformance have made many of these former market leaders too cheap to ignore.<\/p>\n “We’re witnessing the revenge of the Magnificent Seven and most people don’t even seem to know it,” the “Mad Money<\/a>” host said. “I think it’s time to buy.”<\/p>\n Stocks like\u00a0Dell<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Snowflake<\/a>\u00a0have surged this year, while many of the Mag 7 have fallen behind \u2014 even trailing the overall market as measured by the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u2032s year-to-date gain of 13%.<\/p>\n With the exception of\u00a0Apple<\/a>, Cramer said\u00a0Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0Alphabet<\/a>,\u00a0Meta<\/a>,\u00a0Microsoft<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tesla<\/a>\u00a0have become relative laggards as investors gravitated toward newer winners.\u00a0Nvidia<\/a>, like Apple, is beating the market, year to date, but its price-to-earnings multiple is so cheap that Cramer lumped it in with the rest.<\/p>\n “We have to go back and pick at this market’s old leadership, the forgotten Mag Seven, because a lot of them have gotten real cheap,” he explained.<\/p>\n \u2014 Alexa LoMonaco<\/p>\n