Wall Street stocks buoyed by strong economic data, possible US-China trade talks

Wall Street stocks buoyed by strong economic data, possible US-China trade talks

By Chibuike Oguh and Sruthi Shankar

Fri May 2, 2025 5:29 PM  

Earlier labor reports this week showing a slowing in hiring and an increase in layoffs as well as contracting GDP was flatly contradicted today by today’s payroll report showing a whopping 177,000 new jobs in April obviously exceeding expectations and thus shooting all three indexes straight up from the open and staying that way all day. Sentiment was also boosted by the hint that China may be reconsidering opening trade negotiations. Both the Dow and Nasdaq got big 3-digit boosts with the S&P not far behind. The Dow has now had its ninth consecutive win, its strongest streak since 2023 and the S&P also its ninth, its longest in 11 years. For the week, the three had gains between 2.9 and 3.4%.  

But caution did come from today’s expert, “The stock market is cheering this morning’s payroll report but I have to point out that job growth did slow on the month and I haven’t seen too many comments about that.” However, to spin it in a more optimistic direction, the same expert speculated that most people expected the numbers to be much worse given the fact that the survey happened a week after the tariffs were announced, which was taken as a big positive of a smaller negative from tariffs. The best news came from another expert, “I do think what today is saying is that the economy is a lot stronger than people thought and a lot more resilient in the face of all these tariffs and fears about tariffs.” As has been the pattern lately, volume came in at 16 billion, still well below the 19.3 average. 

DJ: 40,752.96  +83.60       NAS: 17,710.74  +264.40      S&P: 5,604.14  +35.08        5/1

DJ: 41,317.43  +564.47     NAS: 17,977.73  +266.99      S&P: 5,686.68  +82.54        5/2

Fri 5-2-25 5:29 pm Wall Street stocks buoyed by strong economic data, possible US-China trade talks | Reuters