Shares in the United States rose at the end of the week, with gains for Nvidia and Meta Platforms. The US labour market report released today reinforced expectations that the US economy could avoid recession. In the foreign exchange market, the dollar strengthened.
Rising U.S. Stock Indices
The Dow Jones index, which includes shares of thirty leading US companies, gained 0.36 per cent today to end trading at 36,247.87 points. The broader S&P 500 index rose 0.41 per cent to 4,604.37 points and the Nasdaq Composite index, which includes many companies in the high-tech sector, rose 0.45 per cent to 14,403.97 points.
For the week, the Dow Jones remained almost unchanged, the S&P 500 added 0.21 and the Nasdaq 0.69 percent. According to Reuters, the S&P closed the highest since last March and the Nasdaq the highest since last April, while the Dow Jones had its longest weekly gain since February 2019 thanks to a small weekly gain.
Strong New Jobs in the U.S.
The US economy created roughly 199,000 new jobs last month, more than expected. The U.S. unemployment rate surprisingly fell to 3.7 percent from October’s 3.9 percent.
Investors are now expecting the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged next week. Most think the Fed will start cutting rates in May, two months later than they thought before the release of the November labour market statistics.
Shares of chipmaker Nvidia gained 1.95 percent and Internet company Meta Platforms gained 1.89 percent. But shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet lost 1.31 percent after earlier gains sparked by news of the company’s artificial intelligence activities.
Currency Market Development
The dollar index, which measures the value of the dollar against a basket of six major world currencies, added 0.4 percent to 103.99 points shortly before 10 p.m. EDT. It could post a modest weekly gain after an unfavorable November, when it lost three percent.
The euro was depreciating 0.3 percent from the dollar to $1.0765 at the same time. Against the yen, which posted almost its biggest one-day gain in a year on Thursday, the dollar added 0.6 percent to JPY144.98, taking back some of its earlier losses.
Source: čtk
