Wall: Reaction at the end – Third consecutive week of gains for S&P 500 and Nasdaq

In a session with small fluctuations and sign exchanges, Wall Street reacted at the end with modest gains, with the US market absorbing the encouraging data on employment in the US announced today and showing that the US economy added almost half a million jobs. in March, while the unemployment rate fell to a new two-year low.

The US stock market left behind the significant losses in yesterday’s session, but also of first quarter 2022 (the Dow fell 4.6%, the S&P 500 4.9% and the Nasdaq 9.1%) and closed with a positive sign on a weekly basis, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining for the third consecutive 5 days.

The tone for today’s meeting was given by the data on employment. In particular, the US Department of Commerce announced that the US economy added another 431,000 jobs in March, leading the unemployment rate to 3.6%, at the lowest level since February 2020, from 3.8% last month. Something that is expected to allow the Federal Reserve to continue tightening its policy in the coming months to tackle the inflation rally to a 40-year high.

At the same time, the Ministry revised its measurement for February to 750,000 jobs from 678,000 initially. Analysts’ average estimates in a Bloomberg poll put the number at 490,000 new jobs in March, with unemployment falling to 3.7%.

“The data may not be spectacular, but they show stability,” said Thomas Simons, a Jefferies economist. “We do not think anything will change for the Fed, as there is nothing in favor of raising interest rates by 50 basis points in the next session,” he added.

In the meantime, his performance 2-year government bond strengthened by 14.6 basis points to 2.43%, at the highest level since March 19, 2019. The 2-year period has added 94 bp. in the last four weeks, recording the largest increase on a 4-week basis since the 5-day period ended on March 15, 1996.

The 10-year bond add 5 p.m. at 2.374%. However, in the week it fell by 11.7 points, according to the Dow Jones Market Data.

The dollar gained 0.3% on Friday, according to the ICE US Dollar.

Indicators – Statistics

On the dashboard the industrial Dow Jones gained 0.4% or 140 points to close at 34,818.27, the widest S&P 500 added 0.34% to 4,545.86 points and the technological Nasdaq recorded an increase of 0.29% to 14,261.50 points.

In the week The Dow gained 0.1%, the S&P 500 recorded a marginal increase and the Nasdaq strengthened by 0.7%.

From 30 shares which make up the industrial index, 19 closed with a positive sign, 10 with a negative and one remained unchanged. The profits were led by Verizon with an increase of 2.32%, followed by Visa Inc (+ 2.06%) and Merck (+ 1.79%). The biggest losses were recorded by Intel (-2.93%), Walgreens Boots (-2.03%) and Caterpillar (-1.44%).

US-listed Chinese stocks closed higher after a report that Chinese authorities would give US regulators full access to control reports. Thus, DiDi Group Holding increased by 12.8%, Biliblii added almost 8%, Pinduoduo 6.33%, iQIYI recorded profits of 5.29%, Alibaba Group Holding added 1.29% and NIO gained 4.18%.

GameStop fell 0.95% in the wake of the announcement that will proceed to split its share. The company, as reported by Reuters, will raise the issue with the General Assembly. of its shareholders in order to proceed with the relevant plan.

Mixed image for processing

In others macro of the day, The manufacturing sector presented a mixed picture in the US according to two separate reports that saw the light of day.

In particular, according to her research data S&P Global Manufacturing activity improved in March, with the relevant PMI climbing to 58.8 points from 57.3 points in February, surpassing the preliminary measure of 58.5 points.

In the opposite direction, the research by the Institute for Supply Management showed a slowdown in manufacturing in March, with the national activity index falling to 57.1 from 58.6 in February. Analysts’ average estimates in a Reuters poll put the index at 59.0.