U.S. Stocks Seeing Continued Strength Following Upbeat Jobs Data

After moving seeing modest strength early in the session, stocks have seen some further upside over the course of the trading day on Friday. With the upward move on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have reached new record intraday highs.

Currently, the major averages are just off their highs of the session. The Dow is up 120.48 points or 0.3 percent at 34,736.01, the Nasdaq is up 71.20 points or 0.5 percent at 14,593.57 and the S&P 500 is up 19.40 points or 0.5 percent at 4,339.34.

The strength on Wall Street comes after the Labor Department released a report showing a continued reacceleration in the pace of U.S. job growth in the month of June.

The report showed non-farm payroll employment spiked by 850,000 jobs in June after surging by an upwardly revised 583,000 jobs in May.

Economists had expected employment to jump by about 700,000 jobs compared to the addition of 559,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Following the decrease in employment seen last December, the pace of job growth has bounced back to its highest level since last August.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate unexpectedly inched up to 5.9 percent in June from 5.8 percent in May. The unemployment rate was expected to edge down to 5.7 percent.

The stronger than expected job growth paints a positive picture of the gradually reopening economy but is not seen as likely to significantly alter the Federal Reserve’s timeline for tightening monetary policy.

“With further progress toward the Fed’s dual mandate likely over the summer, we anticipate a Fed tapering announcement at the Jackson Hole Symposium in August,” said Lydia Boussour, Lead US Economist at Oxford Economics

She added, “Still, while tapering would start in early 2022, rate liftoff wouldn’t be on the table until early 2023.”

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed the U.S. trade deficit widened roughly in line with estimates in the month of May.

Sector News

Software stocks have shown a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index up by 1.5 percent to a new record intraday high.

Notable strength has also emerged among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index.

An increase by the price of gold has also contributed to strength among gold stocks, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index climbing by 1.1 percent.

On the other hand, energy and networking stocks are seeing some weakness on the day, limiting the upward for the broader markets.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index plunged by 2 percent.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.3 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index both closed slightly below the unchanged line.

In the bond market, treasuries are rebounding from the pullback seen in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3.9 basis points at 1.441 percent.

Source: Read Full Article