US stocks finished higher Friday in a volatile session as April and second-quarter trading began. Jobs gains for March and February’s upwardly revised report reinforced expectations for the Fed to deliver big interest-rate hikes this year. The 2-year yield charged up 13 basis points to an intraday high of 2.469% and overtook the 10-year yield again. Loading Something is loading.
US stocks finished up Friday as the March jobs report underscored expectations for the Federal Reserve to be aggressive in raising interest rates to tame hot inflation.
The S&P 500 bobbed in and out of positive territory late in the session before closing with a moderate gain. The Labor Department said the US economy added 431,000 jobs in March, below the forecast of 490,000, but February figures were upwardly revised to 750,000. The world’s largest economy has now recovered 93% of the jobs it lost at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The labor report was generally in line with expectations and will do little to dissuade the Federal Reserve from pursuing tighter monetary policy,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, in a note to Insider.
“Wages continue to rise on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the tightness in the labor market. This serves as an additional input to more durable levels of inflation for the Federal Reserve to address,” he added. Consumer price inflation sits near 8%.
Here’s where US indexes stood at 4:00 p.m. on Friday:
S&P 500: 4,545.84, up 0.34%Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,818.27, up 0.40% (139.92 points)Nasdaq Composite: 14,261.50, up 0.29%Bond yields also rose as investors continued to price in expectations for the Fed to deliver big rate hikes as the labor market looks healthy enough for now to take on pricier borrowing rates. The Fed could kick up interest rates by 50 basis points at some of its meetings this year.
The 2-year yield, which is the most sensitive rate to Fed policy, charged up 13 basis points to an intraday high of 2.469%.
The 2-year yield also overtook the 10-year yield, which rose 4 basis points to 2.37%, meaning that part of the yield curve inverted again after briefly flipping earlier in the week.
Around the markets, US-listed Chinese stocks soared as Beijing reportedly considers giving US accounting firms access to their financials to prevent delistings.
Russia is on pace to rake in $321 billion from energy exports this year as trade partners continue buying its oil and gas.
Goldman Sachs warned the dollar is at risk of losing its dominance and could end up a lesser player like the UK pound.
The SEC said crypto platforms that hold customers’ stashes must treat them as their own assets and liabilities.
Oil prices continued to fall after President Joe Biden announced releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. West Texas Intermediate crude declined 0.9% to $99.34 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost 0.5% at $104.45.
Gold prices lost 1.4% to $1,927.70 per ounce. Bitcoin turned higher, rising 1.9% to $46,380.87.
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