US markets rebound on back of new job figures
US stocks rallied on Thursday in Wall Street’s latest sharp swerve after a better-than-expected report on unemployment eased worries about the slowing economy . The S&P 500 jumped 119.81 points, or 2.3 percent, to 5,319.31, for its best day since 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 683.04 points, or 1.8 percent to 39,446.49, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 464.22 points, or 2.9 percent to 16,660.02. A week ago worse-than-expected data on unemployment claims fuelled worries that the Federal Reserve had kept interest rates at too high for too long. That sent markets reeling, along with a rate hike by the Bank of Japan that hit the carry trade.  At the worst of it, at least so far, the S&P 500 was down about 9 percent from its all-time set last month.  However, the market’s swings look more like a “positioning-driven crash” caused by too many investors piling into similar trades and then exiting them together, rather than the start of a long-term downward market caused by a recession, according to strategists at BNP Paribas. They say it looks more similar to the “flash crash” of 2010 than the 2008 global financial crisis or the 2020 recession caused by the pandemic. Of course, markets have been quick to turn over the past week regardless of any long-term predictions. “Today’s jobless claims data may ease some of the concerns raised by last week’s soft jobs report,” said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. “But with inflation data due out next week and the stock market still working through its biggest pullback of the year, it’s unclear how much this will move the sentiment needle.” In the meantime, big US companies continue to turn in profit reports for the spring that are mostly better than analysts expected. Big Tech stocks also rose to claw back some of their sharp losses from the last month. (AP)