US stocks climb on upbeat sentiment after labour data

Dow Jones Industrial Average climbs in NFP-fueled risk appetite recoveryNEWS | 10/04/2024 20:09:52 GMT | By Joshua GibsonThe Dow Jones recovered ground on NFP Friday, but still remains down on the week.

The US added far more jobs than expected in September.Market hopes for a follow-up jumbo cut from the Fed have collapsed.The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rallied after US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) jobs figures blew past expectations. US NFP net job gains soared to 254K on Friday, cudgeling market hopes for a second double-wide rate cut from the Federal Reserve (Fed) on November 7.

The US Unemployment Rate dropped back to 4.1% from the previous 4.2%, further reinforcing a healthier-than-expected landscape in the US labor market. In addition, several months’ worth of NFP releases saw healthy upside revisions. August’s previous NFP total was lifted by an additional 17K, while July’s figure rose sharply by 55K, bringing the total up to 144K.

Annual wage growth also firmed up in September, rising 4.0% YoY from the previous 3.9%. Investors had expected September’s Average Hourly Earnings growth to ease back to 3.8%. With wages and net jobs additions blowing well past expectations across the board, rate market expectations of a higher pace of rate cuts have taken a huge hit to round out a middling-at-best trading week.

According to the CME’s FedWatch Tool, rate trader expectations for the Fed’s November rate call plummeted post-NFP; rate futures speculators now see a 95% chance that the Fed will trim rates by a modest 25 bps on November 7, with the last 5% betting on no movement at all on the Fed funds rate.Dow Jones newsDespite a moderate recovery after a bumper NFP print, the Dow Jones only saw a tempered rally.

The index broadly rallied on reaction to US jobs figures, rising nearly 400 points bottom-to-top, but the index has settled to a more reasonable 200-point gain.Two-thirds of the Dow Jones’ constituent securities rose on Friday, led by JPMorgan Chase (JPM). JPMorgan rallied 3% on the day, climbing over $210 per share. On the low side, Home Depot (HD) backslid 1% to $407 per share.In other stock news, Amazon (AMZN) rose nearly 2% on Friday, clipping into $185 per share on the back of upbeat jobs data and the rapid resolution of the East Coast dock worker’s strike.