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The performance of US stocks varied after the release of jobs data
The performance of stock indices varied during the session on Friday, July 5, on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices rising and the Dow Jones index declining, after the release of jobs data for the month of June.
The S&P 500 index rose this year by 16%, with the index heading for weekly gains for the fourth time in the last five weeks, with investors betting that any economic weakness later this year will be met with an interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve.
Labor data released Friday morning reflected a 206,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls in June and a slight increase in the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.1%. Economists expected the unemployment rate to remain steady at 4%, the same level as in May.
Treasury yields fell after a report on expectations that a rise in the unemployment rate will prompt the Fed to cut interest rates later this year.
“On the one hand, the downward revisions of previous months and the rise in the unemployment rate increase the odds of a Fed rate cut in September – and bond markets are certainly celebrating this,” said Principal Asset Management’s chief global strategist, Seema Shah. “But these same numbers cannot help but raise concerns about the direction of the US economy. The wide range of economic data all point to a decline – and today’s report adds to that picture.”
