The S&P 500 on Friday closed slightly lower, although major indices rallied off their worst levels of the day, as last month’s payrolls report fueled expectations the US Federal Reserve would maintain its path of interest rate hikes to combat inflation.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 263,000, above expectations of 200,000, and wage growth accelerated even as recession concerns increased, the US Department of Labor’s jobs report showed.
As expected, the US unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent.
Photo: AFP
“Wage growth has been in an uptrend since August,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investment in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
“We will have to see that trend reverse for the Fed to be comfortable with a pause. Until then, they’ll continue to taper toward a pause,” Jacobsen said.
Investors have been looking for signs of weakness in the labor market, especially wages, as a precursor to faster cooling of inflation that will enable the Fed to slow and eventually stop its current rate hike cycle.
Stocks rallied earlier in the week after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell spoke about scaling back interest rate hikes as early as this month.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.87 points, or 0.1 percent, to 34,429.88, the S&P 500 lost 4.87 points, or 0.12 percent, to 4,071.7 and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 20.95 points, or 0.18 percent, to 11,461.5.
Still, equities ended the session off their lowest levels of the day that saw each of the major indices tumble at least 1 percent, with the Dow managing a slight gain.
“If anything, I am actually encouraged by how the market is clawing its way back from the level we were at today. It is another indication the market is looking for at least a seasonal December rally,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA in New York.
“The market is beginning to look across the valley and say: ‘OK, a year from now the Fed will likely be on hold and considering cutting rates,’” Stovall said.
The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee meets on Dec. 13 and 14, the final meeting in a volatile year that saw the central bank attempt to stifle the fastest rate of inflation since the 1980s with record interest rates increases.
The major averages notched a second straight week of gains, with the S&P 500 climbing 1.13 percent, the Dow gaining 0.24 percent and the NASDAQ rising 2.09 percent.
Growth and technology companies such as Apple Inc, down 0.34 percent, and Amazon, down 1.43 percent, were pressured by concerns over rising rates, but pared declines as US Treasury yields eased throughout the day off earlier highs.
The S&P 500 growth index lost 0.29 percent, while technology shares were among the worst performing among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors with a fall of 0.55 percent.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.15-to-1 ratio; on the NASDAQ, a 1.35-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the NASDAQ Composite recorded 86 new highs and 92 new lows.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last