Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 25, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
The S&P 500 closed flat on Friday after hitting an intraday record high despite the better-than-expected jobs report.
The composite index closed down 0.11% at 5,346.99 after hitting an all-time high early in trade. Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell 87 points to 38,798.99. Nasdaq Composite Index It closed down 0.23% at 17,133.13.
All three major indexes had strong weeks: the Dow rose 0.29%, the S&P 500 gained nearly 1.32% and the Nasdaq added 2.38%.
Stocks are recovering from early pressure following Friday’s jobs report, the news that sent benchmark 10-year Treasury yields up more than 15 basis points.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 272,000 in May, beating the 190,000 Dow Jones expected and the 175,000 increase in April. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% last month and are up 4.1% from a year ago. But despite the payroll gains, the unemployment rate rose to 4%.
Investors had been hoping for a weak jobs report on the presumption that the Federal Reserve would give the go-ahead to cut interest rates later this year. Now, with the labor market continuing to show signs of resilience, Wall Street seems to be focusing on the idea that the economy is strong enough to keep growing without the help of low interest rates.
“We should all be happy that the economy is doing well.” IBM “At the end of the day, it’s all about the economy, GDP growth, GDP corporate earnings, consumer health, [and] That will always win in the long run.”
The jobs report came after the European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday for the first time since 2019, increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to potentially ease policy. The Fed is due to make a decision on interest rates next week after its policy meeting on June 11-12.
Chipmakers and AI darlings NVIDIA It dipped slightly on Friday but still ended the week up 10%. It topped the $3 trillion mark for the first time on Wednesday before hitting a new all-time high on Thursday.
