Wall Street bounces on robust job additions in April

Wall Street
Wall Street

Wall Street's main indexes rose steadily on Friday, as a stronger-than-expected job growth in April showed that the U.S. economy continues to expand.

The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs inApril and the unemployment rate dropped to a more than 49-year low of 3.6%.

However, average hourly earnings came in just shy ofexpectations, pointing to muted inflationary pressure.

"The economy is looking fairly strong and inflationpressures are subdued, which is bullish for the stock market," said RahulShah, chief executive at Ideal Asset Management in New York.

"Risk sentiment is likely to be on because the Fed islikely to remain on hold because you would need to see a string of higher jobnumbers at this level for the Fed to consider raising rates."

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments on Wednesday thatdecline in inflation was likely due to transient factors dampened hopes of aninterest rate cut this year, pushing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq off theirrecord highs.

All three major indexes were set to end the week lower, with theNasdaq on course for its first weekly decline in five.

At 11:31 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 122.47 points, or 0.47%, at 26,430.26, the S&P 500 was up 19.93 points, or 0.68%, at 2,937.45 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 90.98 points, or 1.13%, at 8,127.75.

Also helping gains was a largely positive earnings season. Ofthe nearly 400 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, three-quartershave topped profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

The upbeat reports have turned around earnings estimate for thefirst quarter to an almost 1% rise from a 2% decline at the start of April.

All the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with a 1.23%rise in consumer discretionary stocks powering the gains.

Amazon.com Inc rose 2.9%, after CNBC reported Warren Buffett'sBerkshire Hathaway Inc has bought shares of internet retailing giant for thefirst time, though he has not been the one doing the buying.

Newell Brand Inc shares jumped 10.6% after the consumer goodsmaker exceeded Wall Street expectations for quarterly adjusted profit as itbenefited from cost savings and higher pricing.

Network gear-maker Arista Networks Inc plunged 15%, the mostamong S&P 500 companies, after it forecast weak current-quarter revenue.

Activision Blizzard Inc fell 6.4% after the videogame makerforecast current-quarter profit below expectations as it puts more money intoits franchises to battle competition.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.74-to-1 ratio onthe NYSE and a 3.24-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and two newlows, while the Nasdaq recorded 61 new highs and 23 new lows

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