By US stocks surged on Friday after the September jobs report blew past economist estimates.
The US economy added 254,000 jobs last month, well ahead of economist estimates of 150,000 jobs. The strong job gains pushed the unemployment rate lower to 4.1% from 4.2%.
According to ING chief economist James Knightley, the jobs report was “unambiguously strong.”
“On the face of this the Fed should be hiking rates with these sorts of figures, not cutting rates,” Knightley said in a note on Friday.
To that end, futures markets see little chance that the Federal Reserve will move ahead with another 50 basis point interest rate cut at its November FOMC meeting.
The chances of a 50 basis point cut plunged to 10% after the jobs report was released, compared to 53% last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Another strong aspect of the jobs report was wage gains, according to Capital Economics.
There also appears to be something of a mini-resurgence in wage growth, with average hourly earnings increasing by 0.4% m/m, which was enough to push the annual growth rate up to 4.0%, a five-month high.
“There also appears to be something of a mini-resurgence in wage growth, with average hourly earnings increasing by 0.4% m/m, which was enough to push the annual growth rate up to 4.0%, a five-month high,” Capital Economics’ Paul Ashworth said.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Friday:
- S&P 500: 5,741.71, up 0.73%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 42,265.77, up 0.61% (+254.18 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 18,119.55, up 1.12%
Here’s what else is going on:
- Spirit Airlines stock plunged after a report said it was considering filing for bankruptcy.
- Costco is selling platinum bars for $1,089 as it diversifies its booming precious metals business.
- Nvidia stock moved higher after CEO Jensen Huang said demand for its next-generation GPU chip is “insane.”
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.83% to $74.32 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was higher by 0.81% to $78.25 a barrel.
- Gold was down 0.41% to $2,668.10 an ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield was higher by 11 basis point at 3.963%.
- Bitcoin was higher by 1.31% to $61,544.
