US stocks sway as traders scrutinize jobs data and Federal Reserve comments

US stocks fluctuated and the dollar fell on Friday after a mixed report on the nation’s jobs market and bilateral support from senior Federal Reserve officials slowed the pace of increases in borrowing costs.

The benchmark S&P 500 Index rose 0.1 percent, while the heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 percent. In Europe, the regional Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 1.8%.

The US dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, was down 1.6 percent. The move came after Susan Collins and Thomas Barkin, Fed chairs in Boston and Richmond, respectively, said the central bank should start considering a slowdown in rate hikes.

Investors also examined data showing that the US added 261,000 jobs in October, beating Wall Street expectations of 200,000. However, the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage point to 3.7 percent in October, higher than the expected 3.6 percent.

The report showed that wages, meanwhile, rose 0.4 percent from the previous month – higher than expectations for a rise of 0.3 percent.

Quincy Crosby, chief global strategist at LBL Financial, said the jobs report reinforced the argument for a smaller 0.5 percentage point increase at the Federal Reserve’s December meeting and “helped the stock market” because high unemployment figures suggest payroll numbers are “turning around.” descending but not collapsing. . . “”.

The Federal Reserve applied a 0.75 percentage point increase for the fourth time in a row on Wednesday as it tries to bring inflation back to its 2 per cent target. Powell’s warning that recent data suggesting that “the final level of interest rates will be higher than expected” sent US stocks lower and led to a sharp jump in short-term US government bond yields.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which is particularly sensitive to expectations of short-term monetary policy, has fallen from its peak on Thursday, when it reached its highest level since mid-2007. The yield on the banknote fell 0.03 percentage point to 4.67 percent on Friday.

Chinese stocks jumped, extending their weekly gains on hopes that Beijing will change its long-standing policy on not spreading the Covid virus. The CSI 300 index of shares listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 3.3 percent.

Industrial metals prices rose on the news. Besides the dollar’s weakness, some commodities were on track for historic daily gains.

Copper, a measure of the health of the global economy, rose 6.5 percent to breach $8,000 a ton for the first time in two months. Other base metals such as nickel, zinc and tin also jumped more than 5 percent after falling since March as macroeconomic concerns outweighed supply concerns.

Gold rose 2.8 percent to $1,677 an ounce, putting it on track for its best day since March when the Russian-Ukrainian conflict rocked global markets.

It also led to gains for mining groups Anglo American, up 11%, and Rio Tinto, up 8% in London. The FTSE 100 is up 2 percent.

Reports that US regulators completed a review of Chinese audit reports earlier than expected added to investor optimism about Chinese stocks, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closing 5.4 percent higher.