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Stock Market News for June 7, 2024
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 25, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 finished flat on Friday, hitting a record intraday high despite a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
The broad market index fell 0.11% to close at 5,346.99 after hitting an all-time high earlier in the session. O Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 87 points to 38,798.99. O Nasdaq Composite fell 0.23% to end the session at 17,133.13.
All three major averages had a winning week. The Dow registered a gain of 0.29%, while the S&P 500 rose almost 1.32% and the Nasdaq advanced 2.38%.
Stocks are recovering from early session pressure following Friday’s jobs report. This news raised the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield by more than 15 basis points.
Non-Farm Payrolls increased at 272,000 in May, above the Dow Jones estimate of 190,000 and April’s gain of 175,000. Average hourly earnings increased 0.4% last month and were up 4.1% from the previous year. However, even with the job gains, the unemployment rate rose to 4%.
Investors were waiting for weak employment numbers at one guess, it would give the Federal Reserve the green light to cut rates later this year. Now, with the job market demonstrating continued resilience, Wall Street appears focused on the idea that the economy is strong enough to continue growing without the help of lower interest rates.
“We should all be happy that we have a strong economy,” IBM vice president and former director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, told CNBC “Shouting in the street“on Friday. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the economy, it’s all about GDP growth, GDP corporate profits, consumer health, [and] that’s going to win out every time in the long run.”
The jobs report comes after the European Central Bank cut rates on Thursday for the first time since 2019, increasing pressure on the Fed to potentially ease policy. The Fed will make its rate decision next week, following its June 11-12 monetary policy meeting.
Chipmaker and artificial intelligence, baby Nvidia it closed slightly on Friday, but still ended the week up 10%. The stock hit a record high on Thursday after surpassing the US$ 3 trillion mark for the first time on Wednesday.