PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange is up on Friday in early trading, buoyed by renewed hope, reinforced by the official employment report, of a slowdown in monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve.
A few minutes after the opening, the Dow Jones index gained 180.03 points, or 0.56%, to 32,181.28 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.45% to 3,736.62 points. and the Nasdaq Composite took 0.15%, or 15.217 points, to 10,358.157.
The US economy added more jobs than expected in October but the Labor Department report also shows the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, from 3.5% the previous month and 3.6% expected by the Reuters consensus.
Growth in the average hourly wage also fell to 4.7% over one year, after +5% a month earlier.
“There are signs that wage inflation has peaked. As we get closer to an economic recession, that number should come down,” said Peter Cardillo, chief economist at Spartan Capital Securities.
The market’s attention will now turn to the inflation figures due next week, as well as the November 8 midterm elections for control of Congress.
Reports that China may be easing its COVID-19 measures are also providing support for equities, battered in the previous two sessions by Fed monetary policy concerns.
The Chinese groups Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu take between 4% and 7.57%.
Starbucks gained 8.93% after posting results above expectations while PayPal lost 6.60% after lowering its annual revenue growth forecast.
(Written by Laetitia Volga, edited by Marc Angrand)