Stock market today: US stocks jump after blowout September jobs report
Unemployment fell to 4.1% from 4.2% in the September jobs report.
US stocks surged on Friday after the September jobs report blew past economist estimates.
The US economy added 254,000 jobs last month, well ahead of economist estimates of 150,000 jobs. The strong job gains pushed the unemployment rate lower to 4.1% from 4.2%.
ING’s chief economist, James Knightley, said the report was “unambiguously strong.”
“On the face of this the Fed should be hiking rates with these sorts of figures, not cutting rates,” Knightley said in a note on Friday.
To that end, futures markets see little hope that the Federal Reserve will move ahead with another 50-basis-point interest-rate cut at its November Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
The chances of such a cut plunged to 10% after the jobs report was released, compared with 53% last week, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Another strong aspect of the jobs report was wage gains, according to Capital Economics.
“There also appears to be something of a mini-resurgence in wage growth, with average hourly earnings increasing by 0.4% m/m, which was enough to push the annual growth rate up to 4.0%, a five-month high,” Capital Economics’ Paul Ashworth said.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Friday:
- S&P 500: 5,741.71, up 0.73%.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 42,265.77, up 0.61% (+254.18 points).
- Nasdaq composite: 18,119.55, up 1.12%.
Here’s what else is going on:
- Spirit Airlines stock plunged after a report said it was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
- Costco is selling platinum bars for $1,090 as it diversifies its booming precious-metals business.
- Nvidia stock moved higher after CEO Jensen Huang said demand for its next-generation GPU chip was “insane.”
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.83% to $74.32 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was higher by 0.81% to $78.25 a barrel.
- Gold was down 0.41% to $2,668.10 an ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield was higher by 11 basis points at 3.96%.
- Bitcoin was higher by 1.31% to $61,544.
