U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite posting a fourth straight day of gains, as investors await Friday’s June jobs report.
Investors also heard from two Fed officials on Thursday explaining why its plans to fight high inflation can still avoid triggering an economic recession.
How have stocks evolved?
-
Dow Jones DJIA Industrial Average,
+1.12%
gained 346.87 points, or 1.1%, closing at 31,384.55. -
S&P 500 SPX,
+1.50%
gained 57.62 points, or 1.5%, ending at 3,902.62. -
Nasdaq Composite COMP,
+2.28%
rose 259.49 points, or 2.3%, ending at 11,621.35. -
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq marked 4 days of straight gains, their longest uninterrupted advance since March, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
rose 70 points, or 0.23%, to 31,038, the S&P 500 SPX,
rose 14 points, or 0.36%, to 3,845, and the Nasdaq Composite COMP,
gained 40 points, or 0.35%, to 11,362.
What drove the markets
Shares finished higher on Thursday, putting them on pace for a string of weekly gains to kick off July.
“It’s a calm before the storm,” said Marvin Loh, global macro strategist at State Street Global Markets, referring to Friday morning’s release of the June jobs report.
“Inflation and employment are the most important right now,” Loh said by phone. “Anything that deviates significantly from expectations will be interpreted as potentially signaling some sort of trend,” which could influence the Fed’s interest rate hike plans through the end of the year, he said. -he declares.
Lily: US hiring likely fell to 18-month low in June – 250,000 new jobs expected
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the market higher as investors also reacted to falling commodity prices over the past month, which helped dampen inflation expectations and push down stocks. bond yields from their recent peak. The change benefited growth stock valuations.
Even though crude oil prices fell 2 days on Thursday, they remained down almost 20% over the past month, although energy stocks rallied on the day, reversing some recent losses. CVX rafters,
rose 2%, while Exxon XOM,
gained 3.2%.
Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management, said the economic growth fears that triggered the pullback in commodity prices also inspired a change in thinking about the Federal Reserve’s plans.
Investors are increasingly betting that the central bank won’t need to be so aggressive in its interest rate hikes.
“Markets are currently betting that the Fed will break and follow the economy, not necessarily inflation,” Nolte said.
Instead, traders are hoping that the hits to equities this year mean the market could be pleasantly surprised when the US second-quarter earnings season hits full swing next week.
While awaiting Friday’s jobs report, investors heard from several Fed officials, including Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who said he supports a 75 basis point rate hike later this month. this, and likely another 50 basis point increase in September. Waller also said recession worries were “overblown.”
St. Louis Federal Reserve Chairman James Bullard said Thursday he did not see a U.S. recession on the horizon, but there was a “good chance” of a soft economic landing.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y,
rose for a second straight day, up 9.6 basis points to 3.007%.
Data released Thursday by the Labor Department showed the number of Americans filing new unemployment insurance claims rose by 4,000 last week, while the number of pending claims increased by 51,000.
The United States also saw its trade deficit shrink in May, data that Capital Economics said could help support growth in the second quarter. Lately, investors have been growing fearful that the US economy will experience slow growth, if not contraction, in the second quarter.
Single stock movers
-
Shares of Micron MU ended up 2.6%, while those of AMD AMD increased by 5.2% and Nvidia NVDA shares gained 4.8% after South Korea Samsung
005930,
+1.37%
announced stronger-than-expected earnings forecasts. -
Freeport-McMoRan
FCX,
+6.72% ,
Schlumberger
SLB,
+5.04%
and Diamondback Energy
CROC,
+5.46% ,
APA Corp.
APA,
+7.81%
and Halliburton Co.
HAL,
+5.21%
increased by 6.7%. 5%, 5.5%, 7.8% and 5.2%, respectively, due to the recovery in oil prices. -
ON Semiconductor Company. ON,
+9.24%
rose 9.2% on Samsung news. -
Elevator manufacturer Otis Worldwide Corp.. OTIS,
-1.64%
fell 1.6% on Thursday after a JP Morgan analyst raised concerns about the stock’s valuation.
Other markets
-
Crude oil prices closed higher. CL.1 crude West Texas Intermediate,
-0.49% CLQ22,
-0.49%
rose 4.3% to settle at $102.73 a barrel. The US benchmark has lost nearly $10 in the previous two sessions on concerns about easing global demand. -
The ICE Dollar DXY Index,
-0.17%
fell less than 0.1%. On Wednesday, the dollar rose above 107, its highest level in 19 years, as worries about the European economy and political unrest in the UK put pressure on the euro and the pound. -
Gold GC00,
+0.07% GCQ22,
+0.07%
rose 0.2% to end at $1,739.70. -
BitcoinBTCUSD,
+2.06%
rose 7.3% to $21,735, but was still down almost 70% from its all-time high as traders watch the recent turmoil in the crypto sector warily. -
In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600 SXXP,
+1.88%
climbed 1.9%, while the FTSE 100 UKX,
+1.14%
in London rose 1.1% after British media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would step down. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP,
-0.14%
rose 0.3% and the Nikkei 225 NIK index,
+1.30%
increased by 1.4%.
—Jamie Chisholm contributed reporting for this article.