Strong U.S. Jobs Report Pushes Value Of Stocks, Bonds Higher

Treasury yields are powering higher Friday, and stock indexes are holding close to their record highs on Wall Street after a report showed the US job market is making widespread improvements, Stan Choe reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The New York Stock Exchange trading floor

The S&P 500 was up 0.1% after the first hour of trading, a day after setting another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 134 points, or 0.4%, at 35,196, as of 10:31 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.

Some of the sharpest action was in the bond market, where Treasury yields tend to move with expectations for the economy and for inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 1.29% from 1.21% late Thursday, clawing back all the losses it sustained over the last week.

Yields jumped as economists said Friday’s encouraging jobs report will give the Federal Reserve another nudge to pare back its bond-buying program, which is trying to juice the economy by keeping longer-term rates low.

Economists say an announcement by the Fed about a possible slowdown in purchases could come as soon as the end of the month.

Friday’s jobs report showed that hiring was stronger than economists expected, with employers adding 943,000 workers to their payrolls. Average wages also jumped 4% in July from a year earlier, more than economists expected.

Most stocks across Wall Street rose following the report, with companies whose profits are most closely tied to the strength of the economy leading the way. Financial companies within the S&P 500 rose 1.5%, and materials companies rose 1.1%. But the better-than-expected data on the economy took the momentum out of technology stocks, which have been some of Wall Street’s biggest winners since the pandemic.

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