Sun, Jul 10, 2022 page10

• Wall St stocks gyrate to muted close

  OPTIMISM: The market would likely right itself as more macroeconomic data come in and as the earnings season begins, the chief executive of an investment firm said

  • Reuters
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Wall Street ended little changed on Friday after a volatile session in which investors tried to comprehend how a robust jobs report would influence the US Federal Reserve and its plans to aggressively hike interest rates.

  Despite the bumpy nature of the day though, the NASDAQ Composite posted its fifth straight gain — its longest winning streak since the beginning of November last year — and all three benchmarks finished solidly up for the week shortened by the US Independence Day holiday.

  The US Department of Labor’s closely awaited data showed that nonfarm payrolls rose by 372,000 jobs last month, higher than the estimated rise of 268,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

  

  The report also showed the unemployment rate remained near pre-pandemic lows at 3.6 percent and average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent, after gaining 0.4 percent in May.

  After a brutal first half of the year, US stock markets started this month on a solid footing as investors took relief from easing commodity prices and the Fed hinting at a more tempered program of rate hikes amid concerns of a recession.

  “We think the market has right-sized itself, somewhat, and will continue to adjust around the edges as we see macro data and as we work our way through earnings season,” TrueMark Investments chief executive Mike Loukas said. “Now it’s a matter of people trying to figure out where the entry point is, and where the bottom is or if we are close to it.”

  Investors remain nervy, though, sifting through each new piece of data and commentary from Fed governors to see how this might influence the US central bank’s plans to dramatically shift rates higher.

  This resulted in see-saw trading on Friday, with all three main benchmarks experiencing periods in positive and negative territory.

  “The market suspects when you start to see truly strong signs of the Fed relaxing its path of rate increases and leading indicators picking up, we’ll probably get a pretty good upward movement in the market, and no one wants to miss that,” Shelton Capital Management chief investment officer Derek Izuel said.

  “So we’re going to have this volatility as we have all these false starts along the way,” he said.

  With the earnings season around the corner, investors are to focus on company forecasts as well as key inflation data expected next week to gauge the health of the economy.

  Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, until recently among the central bank’s most dovish policymakers, said on Friday that he “fully” supports another 75-basis-point rate rise later this month.

  Speaking later on Friday, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams did not specify if he favors a half point or three-quarter point increase at the Fed’s upcoming meeting this month, but acknowledged that rising interest rates were affecting the economy.

  On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 46.4 points, or 0.15 percent, to 31,338.15, the S&P 500 lost 3.24 points, or 0.08 percent, to 3,899.38 and the NASDAQ Composite added 13.96 points, or 0.12 percent, to 11,635.31.

  For the week, the NASDAQ gained 4.5 percent, while the S&P and Dow advanced 1.9 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

  Volume on US exchanges was 9.60 billion shares, compared with the 13.03 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.

  The S&P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and 29 new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 21 new highs and 52 new lows.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    China preparing to invade Taiwan: deputy foreign minister

  • 2

    Taiwan issues tsunami watch after Russia quake

  • 3

    FDA approves shrimp imports from ally Belize

  • 4

    Jakarta puppet ban threatens city’s buskers

  • 5

    Taiwan expects final US tariff rate soon: official