PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange rose in early trading on Friday as news of a slowdown in December wage growth in the United States raised hopes that the Federal Reserve would ease the pace of monetary policy tightening .
In early trading, the Dow Jones index gained 353.05 points, or 1.07%, to 33,283.13 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.88% to 3,841.58 points.
The Nasdaq Composite took 0.51%, or 52.861 points, to 10,358.102.
The Labor Department announced ahead of the opening that the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, with the jobless rate down to 3.5%, but investors are mostly focused on the jobless figure. average hourly earnings.
It increased by 0.3% after +0.4% in November, bringing its increase over one year to 4.6%, after 4.8%. The Reuters consensus was for an increase of 5.0% year-on-year and 0.4% month-on-month.
“I’m a little puzzled about the rise in index futures, the only positive thing I can see is that wage growth has been weaker than expected. But everything else – like the stats released on Thursday – shows a very, very resilient labor market, which doesn’t bode well for a lower Fed rate hike,” Randy Frederick at Charles Schwab said.
A strong labor market could indeed prompt the Fed to raise its federal funds rate target high for some time.
Still, the jobs report is blowing a wind of optimism in the markets, which believe that the Fed could opt for a less aggressive quarter-point rate hike next month, rather than a hike. by half a point.
As a result, the dollar reduced its lead against a basket of international currencies and Treasuries yields fell: the two-year one lost six basis points below 4.4%.
Against the current, Tesla yielded 6.99%, the automaker having reduced the sales prices of its electric cars in China for the second time in less than three months.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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