A food vendor’s cart is parked across from the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
NEW YORK, United States — Amazon led U.S. stock indexes higher on Friday, while a surprisingly weak jobs report marred by some unusual occurrences cemented bets on Wall Street for another cut to interest rates next week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to recover some of its loss from the day before, which was its worst in eight weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 288 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8%.
Article continues after this advertisementAmazon climbed 6.2% after delivering a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected and was the strongest force pushing the S&P 500 higher.
FEATURED STORIES BUSINESS Global Dominion dominates with 1B pesos of loans released in a month BUSINESS Trump vs Harris: Views from PH biz BUSINESS Parisian: The footwear that grew with ShoemartIntel, meanwhile, rallied 7.8% despite reporting a worse loss than expected. Its revenue topped analysts’ estimates, and it gave a forecast for results in the current quarter that likewise topped expectations. Cardinal Health was another one of the market’s bigger gainers and jumped 7% after topping analysts’ forecasts for profit and revenue in the latest quarter. It also raised its profit forecast for its fiscal year, which is only in its second quarter.
They helped offset a 1.2% slide for Apple, which said it expects revenue growth in the important holiday quarter to be in the low to mid-single digit percentages. That was below several analysts’ forecasts.
Article continues after this advertisementAll told, the S&P 500 rose 23.35 points to 5,728.80. The Dow gained 288.73 to 42,052.19, and the Nasdaq composite added 144.77 to 18,239.92.
Article continues after this advertisementIn the bond market, Treasury yields pushed higher following some swings after a highly anticipated report said U.S. employers added only a net 12,000 workers to their payrolls last month. That was far short of the 115,000 in hiring that economists were expecting or the 223,00 jobs that employers created in September.
Article continues after this advertisementThe nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street remains for the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point next week. But the weaker-than-expected jobs report wiped out the slim chance traders had been seeing of the Fed holding rates steady, according to data from CME Group.
The Fed kicked off its rate-cutting campaign in September with a larger-than-usual cut of half a percentage point, as it turns more attention to keeping the job market solid instead of focusing on just driving inflation lower.
Article continues after this advertisementThe two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed’s actions, initially fell following the jobs report but then climbed to 4.20% from 4.18% late Thursday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which also takes future economic growth and other factors into account, likewise rose after a knee-jerk drop. It climbed to 4.37%, up from 4.29% late Thursday.
Economists said Friday’s jobs report contained a lot of noise and perhaps not much signal. Besides two hurricanes that left destructive paths across the United States during the month, a strike by workers at Boeing also helped depress the numbers.
All those distortions make the numbers difficult to parse, “but it doesn’t change our view that the labor market should further decelerate in coming months,” said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
The hope on Wall Street is that the economy will still avoid a recession, even with that expected slowdown in the job market, thanks in part to coming cuts to interest rates by the Fed. The overall economy has so far remained more resilient than feared.
A separate report on Friday said U.S. manufacturing contracted by more last month than economists expected. It’s been one of the areas of the economy hurt most by the Fed’s keeping interest rates at a two-decade high until September.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe after finishing lower across much of Asia outside of Hong Kong.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
The price of oil, meanwhile, rose again to further trim its loss for the week. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.4%. Brent crudeye7, the international standard, also climbed 0.4%.
READ NEXT Global Dominion dominates with 1B pesos of loans released in a... ADB allots $100B for climate projects EDITORS' PICK Taiwan detects 37 Chinese aircraft near island PNP-ACG led Manila Pogo hub raid – NCRPO Northern Gaza’s hospitals come under attack again UAAP: Monteverde, UP draw lessons from worst loss of season PCG transports about 9,000 relief boxes for Kristine victims in Bicol MUPH rallies support for Chelsea Manalo in Miss Universe 2024 polls MOST READ Marcos, BARMM leaders discuss collaboration for 2025 elections LPA seen outside PAR, chance of becoming a typhoon is low Marcos declares Nov. 4 ‘Day of National Mourning’ PBA Finals: Ginebra dominates TNT in Game 4 to tie series at 2-2 Follow @FMangosingINQ on Twitter --> View comments