US open: Stronger than expected jobs report pushes Dow Jones and S&P 500 to new highs
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 06 Aug 2021
(Sharecast News) - The Dow Jones and S&P 500 rallied to fresh record highs early on Friday as market participants thumbed over a better-than-expected non farm jobs report.
As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up xxx at xxx, while the S&P 500 was xxx firmer at xxx and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate xxx weaker at xxx.
The Dow opened xxxx points higher on Friday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as traders digested the Department of Labor's latest weekly initial jobless claims report, which showed first-time jobless claims in the US fell by 14,000 to reach 385,000 during the week ended 31 July.
Friday's main focus was July's non farm payrolls report, which revealed hiring in the US picked up last month, maintaining the nearly 1.0m per month pace of gains seen in June. According to the Department of Labor, non farm payrolls increased by 943,000 in July, following an upwardly revised 938,000 person gain in June. Unemployment fell from 5.9% in June to 5.4% for July, while the labour force participation rate only improved by a tenth of a percentage point to 61.7%.
Elsewhere on the macro front, wholesale inventories rose 1.1% month-on-month in June, more than a preliminary estimate of a 0.8% advance to mark an eleventh consecutive month of increases. According to the Census Bureau, durable stocks were up 1.4%, while non-durable inventories rose 0.6%. On a yearly basis, wholesale inventories advanced 10.5% in June.
Still to come, June consumer credit change figures were slated for release at 2000 BST.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury noted continued its recent stretch of volatile trading prior to the open, rallying above 1.25% after having traded at 1.13% earlier in the week.
In the corporate space, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo stock all recorded early gains on the back of the jobs report, while Amazon, Apple and Salesforce were all trading lower.
AMC Networks second-quarter earnings easily beat projections, while Draftkings also posted better-than-expected quarterly profits.
Norwegian Cruise Line posted mixed results ahead of its first US voyage since 2020 and Goodyear Tire said it had swung to a profit in the second quarter.
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