S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Hit New Record Highs as Wall Street Mostly Likes June Jobs Report

Jerry Kronenberg joined discussion · Jul 5, 2024 22:24

Stocks traded mostly higher Friday morning following the July 4th market holiday, with the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ and $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ pushing further into record territory as the June jobless rate came in higher than expected.

Many on Wall Street saw that as a positive for a market that wants enough economic weakness to let the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates.

The Nasdaq led the way upward rising as much as 110.89 points (0.6%) in trading's first few minutes to a 18,299.19 intraday record. The S&P 500 likewise added 10.86 ticks (0.2%) to a 5,547.88 record.

However, the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ bucked the trend and eased 122.31 points (0.3%) to 39,185.69 shortly before 10:15 a.m. ET.

Stocks mostly rose after the U.S. Labor Department reported before the bell that the American economy created 206,000 nonfarm jobs during June – slightly better than the roughly 200,000 that economists had expected.

Still, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% from May's 4% to reach its highest level since October 2021.

Wall Street is mostly looking for a weaker labor market that could pave the way for the Fed to cut interest rates. That historically benefits stocks by making bond and money-market yields fall.

The $U.S. 10-Year Treasury Notes Yield (US10Y.BD)$ eased 3.5 ticks to 4.311% shortly after 10 a.m. ET in the jobs report's wake, while the $U.S. 2-Year Treasury Notes Yield (US2Y.BD)$ shed 5.8 basis points to 4.633%.

Disclaimer: Community is offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. and is for educational purposes only. Read more