Traders on the NYSE floor
Source: New York Stock Exchange
of S&P500 Traders said rising unemployment would pave the way for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates, moving higher and on track for a strong week.
While the overall market index rose about 0.6%, Nasdaq Composite It increased by 1%. Both hit new session highs.of Dow Jones Industrial Average It added 122 points, or 0.3%, and traded almost flat.
February's jobs report gave some conflicting signals about when it's safe for the Fed to start cutting rates. However, the number of jobs added last month was much higher than expected, with 275,000 jobs added compared to the 198,000 expected by economists compiled by Dow Jones. This data may suggest that the economy is still doing quite well.
But the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 3.9% and wage growth was weaker than feared, offering a glimmer of hope that inflation has cooled enough to appease the Fed. . Statistics on job growth for January were also revised downward.
U.S. Treasury yields fell after Friday's data.
“The bottom line is that people will be able to take whatever message they want from today's coverage,” said George Mateyo, chief investment officer at KeyBank. “However, we believe the data is positively skewed and should give the Fed sufficient confidence that modest adjustments to interest rates are appropriate.”
After a tough start to the week with consecutive declines, the S&P 500 index is up about 1%. The NASDAQ rose 0.8%, but the Dow underperformed, dropping 0.3%.
Nvidia It rose more than 3% during the session, and the weekly increase was more than 16%. apple The stock rose more than 1% in Friday trading and is on track to end its longest losing streak since early 2022 in seven days.
