US stocks held near all-time highs on Friday as investors weighed the June jobs report, which will play into Federal Reserve rate cut calculations.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped just below the flatline on the heels of the report after notching a record close in a shortened session on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.3%. All three gauges were shuttered on Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday.
The US economy added 206,000 jobs in June, more than the 190,000 expected on Wall Street. But the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose slightly to 4.1%, its highest level since November 2021, in another signal the jobs market continues to cool.
Signs of looser conditions in labor data earlier this week bolstered the idea that inflation will keep easing, setting the stage for the Fed to lower interest rates from their current two-decade high. Traders are now pricing in a 75% chance of a cut in September, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
The 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) nudged lower to 4.31% during morning trading, continuing a slide for the week.
Investors are puzzling over Friday’s jobs data to decide whether slowing monthly job growth reflects a normalization in the labor market as it shakes off the pandemic or marks the early signs of a broader economic slowdown.
Elsewhere, the Labour Party’s landslide win in UK elections attracted attention from investors monitoring political risk, particularly as the US presidential election nears. With some key donors urging President Joe Biden to step aside, eyes are on Donald Trump’s growing lead in the polls and what that could mean for markets.
On the corporate front, Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) quarterly profit surged to 15 times the size of its profit a year ago, lifting the stock to a three-year high, boosted by the AI boom.
Crypto-linked stocks Coinbase Global (COIN) lost 4% and Marathon Digital (MARA) shed around 6% in morning trading as bitcoin (BTC-USD) sank to its lowest against the dollar since February.
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