All the indexes started the day in the red, the Dow quite a lot in the red, and then all gained ground throughout the day to end on gains, the Dow being excepted going mildly into the black in the afternoon before sliding back into losses and then regaining ground just before close to break-even. It was the same story as the last two days: “The market is waffling between whether a softening labor market is good news because it gets the Fed to pause or bad news because it means a recession is actually coming.” All eyes will be on the non-farm payrolls expected to show about 70,000 fewer jobs but is due on Friday when the markets will be closed for Good Friday. Due to the holiday, volume was very light at just 9 billion.
Thu April 6, 2023 4:22
PM
Wall Street ends higher as investors eye
upcoming jobs data
By Noel
Randewich and Ankika
Biswas
DJ: 33,482.72 +80.34 NAS: 11,996.86 -129.47 S&P: 4,090.38 -10.22 4/5
DJ: 33,485.29 +2.57 NAS: 12,087.96 +91.09 S&P: 4,105.02
+14.64 4/6
April 6 (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes ended higher
on Thursday, helped by a rally in Alphabet shares as investors, worried about a
slowing economy, looked to upcoming jobs data.
Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) rallied
3.8% and Microsoft (MSFT.O) climbed
2.6%, with both providing more fuel than any other stocks for the S&P 500's
gain for the session. Alphabet's Google unit plans to add artificial
intelligence features to its search engine, the Wall Street Journal reported. Adding to recent data hinting at a weak labor
market, initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 228,000 for
the week ended April 1, versus expectations of 200,000 claims. The Labor Department's data from the prior
week was revised to show 48,000 more applications were received.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.36% to end the session at
4,105.02 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.76%
to 12,087.96 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.01% to
33,485.29 points.
Wall Street has lost ground in recent days in response to
signs of a slowing economy, including weak data on private payrolls and job
openings earlier this week. That marked
a change from recent months, when investors
cheered weak economic data on the basis that it might mean the Fed's interest
rate hikes were working and that the Fed could ease up on its campaign to rein
in decades-high inflation. Interest rate
futures imply traders are divided about whether the Fed will raise its target
rate or keep it steady at its upcoming May meeting, according to CME Group's
Fedwatch tool.
"The market is trying to decide
whether the 'growth and recession' scare or the 'Fed hiking' scare are more
meaningful to prices, and so it's waffling between whether a softening labor market is good
news because it gets the Fed to pause in May or bad news because it means the recession is
actually coming," said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy
analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky.
Investors are now focused on the more comprehensive report on non-farm payrolls,
which are expected to have
increased by 239,000 in March, down from the 311,000 jobs added in the
prior month. That report
is due on Friday, when the U.S. stock market will be closed for the Good
Friday holiday.
Of the 11 S&P 500
sector indexes, eight rose, led by communication services (.SPLRCL), up 1.71%, followed by a 0.74% gain
in utilities (.SPLRCU). With some investors away during a shortened holiday week, volume on U.S. exchanges was
relatively light, with 9 billion shares traded, compared to an average
of 12.7 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
For the week, the
S&P 500 declined 0.1%, the Dow added 0.6% and the Nasdaq lost 1.1%.
In Thursday's trading,
Caterpillar (CAT.N), viewed as a bellwether for the
industrial sector, dipped
2%, bringing its loss over the past three days to 9% as investors
fretted about a potential economic downturn.
AMC
Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N) surged 21% after a U.S. court denied the theater operator's request to
lift a status quo order necessary for its plan to convert preferred shares to
common shares. Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N) tumbled 16% after the
apparel maker posted a fall in quarterly profit. Big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Citigroup (C.N) will be among companies kicking off
the quarterly reporting
season next week, with investors eager for updates on the health of the sector after a
recent banking crisis.
Analysts on average
expect aggregate S&P
500 company earnings for
the first quarter to have fallen 5% year-over-year, according to
Refinitiv I/B/E/S. Advancing issues
outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) by a 1.2-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted six new highs and no
new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 46 new highs and 177 new lows.
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