(Bloomberg) – Stocks rose sharply on Friday after strong earnings from tech giants, with investors banking on U.S. jobs data expected to support interest rate cut expectations and signal further cooling in the labor market. was.
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Wall Street looked to build on Thursday’s gains, with S&P 500 contracts rising 0.5% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 contracts rising 1%. Meta Platforms soared 16% in premarket trading on Friday, while Amazon.com Inc rose 6.7% after the tech giant reported better-than-expected quarterly profits. Apple fell after showing weak performance in China.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 index rose on positive earnings news, with Mercedes-Benz Group up as much as 3.3% and Swedish consumer electronics maker Electrolux up 6%. The picture was more complicated in Asia, where China’s main benchmarks avoided sharp declines in a volatile session. A broader look at stocks in the region rose 0.7%.
Investors will analyze the monthly U.S. jobs report later Friday for evidence of further cooling in the labor market that could prompt the Federal Reserve to ease borrowing costs. Employers are expected to add jobs at a slower pace in January, but economists at Bloomberg expect the unemployment rate to rise to 3.8% from 3.7% in December.
“A move closer to 4% could change the market’s view of when the Fed will start cutting rates,” economists at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg said in a note to clients.
U.S. Treasuries were firm after a rally on Thursday as concerns about the health of U.S. regional banks reignited and traders were pricing in an accelerating pace of Fed interest rate cuts.
Investors will continue to closely track developments in these small financial institutions as the sector’s index heads for its worst week since May last year in the aftermath of the banking crisis. New York Community Bancorp plunged 45% on Wednesday after shocking investors by cutting its dividend, posting a quarterly loss and increasing loan loss provisions on its commercial real estate exposure.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Aozora Bank fell 16%, taking its weekly decline to more than 30% after it said it would report its first loss in 15 years due to bad loans related to U.S. real estate.
During choppy trading in Chinese markets on Friday, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by about 4% on declines in healthcare and tech stocks, with some market observers attributing the losses to selling ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. That’s what I was thinking. After that, the decline narrowed to 1.5%.
“China needs to resolve its asset crisis before it can regain investor confidence,” said Kieran Calder, head of Asian equities research at Union Bancair Privy. “Until that happens, it’s a market for short-term traders.”
Elsewhere, oil ended a two-day slide, while gold was little changed. Bloomberg News reported that negotiations are progressing toward an agreement that would suspend the Israel-Hamas war and release civilian hostages.
The main movements in the market are:
stock
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As of 9:06 a.m. London time, the Stoxx European 600 was up 0.5%.
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S&P 500 futures rose 0.6%
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Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.1%
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Dow Jones Industrial Average futures little changed
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MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7%
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MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.9%
currency
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Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index little changed
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The euro was almost unchanged at $1.0882.
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The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 146.76 yen to the dollar.
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The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1914 yuan to the dollar.
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The British pound was almost unchanged at $1.2747.
cryptocurrency
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Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $42,964.13.
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Ether rose 0.2% to $2,309.39
bond
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The 10-year government bond yield was almost unchanged at 3.89%.
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Germany’s 10-year bond yield rose 3 basis points to 2.17%.
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The UK 10-year bond yield rose 6 basis points to 3.80%.
merchandise
This article was produced in partnership with Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Richard Henderson and Chiranjivi Chakraborty.
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