Stock market today: Wall Street slips after the US job market shows less cooling than expected
By Zimo Zhong, The Associated Press on December 8, 2023.
NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street is slipping in early trading as it weighs how to read a report showing the job market isn’t slowing as much as expected. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower Friday and on track for its first losing week in the last six. The Dow was off 0.1%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.4%. Yields rose in the bond market following the report, which said U.S. employers added more jobs than economists expected last month. The strong data keep worries about a recession at bay; however, markets are still concerned that the remarkably resilient job market could give inflation more fuel. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. HONG KONG (AP) – World shares were mostly up on Friday ahead of a U.S. government jobs report, after Wall Street rose Thursday to snap its first three-day losing streak since Halloween. On Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to 4,585.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 36,117.38, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.4% to 14,339.99. The future for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both slipped 0.1%. In Friday’s European market, data released on Friday showed a 3.2% inflation rate in Germany for November, marking the fifth consecutive month of decline. The data supports the prediction of upcoming European Central Bank rate cuts. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher to 16,646.88 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.3%, to 7,450.53. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up nearly 0.1% at 7,518.90. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index shed 1.7% to 32,307.86, as investors speculated that the Bank of Japan may end its negative interest rate policy. Before meeting Thursday with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda told parliament the central bank would face an “even more challenging” situation at the year’s end and in early 2024. On Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 143.97 Japanese yen from 144.12 yen. It was trading above 150 yen until mid-November. Updated data released on Friday showed Japan’s economy shrank by 2.9% year-on-year in the July-September quarter, worse than estimated earlier. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index edged 0.1% lower to 16,334.37 and the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.1% at 2,969.56. The Kospi in Seoul gained 1% to 2,517.85. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.3% higher at 7194.90. India’s Sensex added 0.1% after the central bank announced it was keeping its key interest rate unchanged. Bangkok’s SET was virtually unchanged. In Wall Street trading, big Tech stocks helped power the market higher, led by a 5.3% leap for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. They’re Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of their massive size, and they have been on huge tears so far this year. Wall Street has rallied toward its best level since March 2022 largely on hopes that the Federal Reserve is finally done raising interest rates, which are meant to get high inflation under control. Investors are watching keenly for Friday’s U.S. jobs report. The Federal Reserve wants to see the job market slow by just the right amount. Too much weakness would mean people out of work and a possible recession, but too much strength could add upward pressure on inflation. A report on Thursday said that slightly more U.S workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, though the number is not alarmingly high and hit economists’ expectations exactly. Hopes for easier rates help all kinds of investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive or promising big growth far in the future. That’s helped Big Tech stocks make huge gains this year. Alphabet’s jump on Thursday brought its gain for the year so far to just over 55%. On Wednesday, it announced the launch of its Gemini artificial intelligence model. Alphabet was the single strongest force pushing the S&P 500 upward, but Apple, Amazon and Nvidia all also rose at least 1%. Another winner was JetBlue Airways, which climbed 15.2% after it said it may report better results for the final three months of the year than it earlier expected. It also slightly lowered the top end of its forecast for fuel costs during the end of 2023. On the losing end of Wall Street, C3.ai tumbled 10.8% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Crude oil prices have been falling recently amid worries that global demand may fall short of available supplies. But they reversed their decline on Friday. The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude gained $1.61 to $70.95. It lost 4 cents to settle at $69.34 on Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.73 to $75.78 per barrel. The euro slipped to $1.0790 from $1.0793. 22-21
