NEW YORK — Stocks on Wall Street posted solid gains as solid jobs data showed the U.S. economy remains on track. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 307 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.2%. U.S. employers added jobs in a surprisingly strong month of March, but modest wage increases helped ease some fears that inflation would spike again. Wall Street still expects the Fed to start cutting rates in June. In the bond market, government bond yields rose. Oil rose slightly and gold prices continued their recent gains.
This is the latest news. Previous articles from the Associated Press are below.
Friday’s positive U.S. jobs report sent stock prices higher on Wall Street and U.S. Treasury yields higher.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9%, paring some of this week’s losses and moving closer to its all-time high set last week. As of 2:51 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 279 points (0.7%). The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1%.
Technology companies led the rise. Semiconductor giant Nvidia rose 2.1%, and Google’s parent company Alphabet rose 1.1%. The gains were broad-based, with all sectors of the benchmark S&P 500 gaining, but the index still posted its first weekly loss in three weeks.
U.S. employers added an astonishing 303,000 workers to their payrolls in March, according to a government report Friday. A strong job market fueled growth in consumer spending and corporate profits, resulting in strong overall economic growth.
The strong job market has also raised concerns that inflation could gradually rise and the Federal Reserve could delay lowering interest rates. But Friday’s report showed wage growth was modest for the month at 0.3%, upward pressures on inflation have eased, and Wall Street still expects the Fed to start cutting interest rates in June.
Friday’s gains came after Federal Reserve officials spooked investors by questioning whether the central bank needed to cut interest rates this year amid a strong economy. This was followed by a decline. A series of recent reports indicate that the US economy remains resilient despite rising inflation levels and high interest rates.
US bond yields rose following the jobs report. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.37% from 4.31% just before the report was released. The two-year bond yield, which is driven largely by expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.73% from 4.65% just before the report.
While bond markets may be signaling concerns that interest rates will remain high for an extended period of time, stock markets are using strong employment figures as good news as consumer spending and corporate profits remain important to investors. seems to be accepted as such.
“Unless the market cuts rates one or two times and the Fed doesn’t keep them on hold, that’s good enough for equity investors,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.
The Fed’s benchmark interest rate is at its highest level in 20 years, a result of historic interest rate hikes aimed at curbing inflation. The strategy appears to be working so far, with overall consumer prices falling significantly from their 2022 peak and inflation falling to 3.2% in February. By mid-2022, it will reach 9.1%.
Strong employment and consumer spending have raised concerns that it will become increasingly difficult to bring inflation down to the Fed’s target rate of 2%. It also increases the likelihood that inflation will reheat.
The Fed and investors will get another important update on inflation next week when the government releases its March consumer price report.
Wall Street is slightly ahead of expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates at its June meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. That’s down from 65.9% on Thursday and 72% a month ago.
Other markets were mostly quiet as the latest corporate results were expected to pick up steam in the coming weeks.
Johnson & Johnson was largely unchanged after the pharmaceutical giant announced it would acquire medical technology company Shockwave in a deal worth about $13 billion.
Apple rose 0.4% after it said it would lay off more than 600 employees in California, the first major wave of post-pandemic layoffs amid broader consolidation in the tech industry. The tech industry has been cutting jobs for two years, but the measures have had little impact on the broader job market.
In the energy market, US crude oil prices settled at 0.4% higher. Prices have risen more than 20% this year as demand remains strong.
European and Asian markets fell.
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AP Business writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Damien J. Troise and Alex Veiga, The Associated Press
