US stocks rally after blowout jobs data
Wall Street stocks rallied on Friday, embracing a strong US jobs report and shrugging off concerns about monetary policy and Middle East tensions. The US economy added 303,000 jobs in March, much above analyst expectations in the latest sign of labour market strength in spite of lofty US interest rates. While the report indicates economic health, futures markets raised the odds that the Federal Reserve will keep the interest rate flat at the June policy meeting, which has been seen as the first candidate for interest rate cuts. The Dow Jones gained 0.8 percent to 38,904. The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 percent to 5,204, while the Nasdaq jumped 1.2 percent to 16,248. Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers said some of the boost was a "relief" rally after Thursday's sell-off in the wake of worries over Middle East tensions. But Sosnick said data suggests markets should be more fixated on economic dynamics "rather than how many rate cuts we're actually going to get." Large tech companies had a good day, with Facebook parent Meta and Netflix both winning more than three percent and Amazon, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet also advancing. Johnson & Johnson slipped 0.1 percent after agreeing to acquire Shockwave Medical, whose products address cardiovascular disease, for US$13.1 billion. Shockwave rose 2.0 percent. (AFP)