Dow Jones Today | US Stock Market Live Updates: However, January jobs increase by 130,000 beat most forecast while unemployment rate came down to 4.3%, pointing to a stabilising jobs market.
Dow Jones Today | US Stock Market Live Updates: A stronger-than-expected US jobs report boosted equity markets in early trading and lifted the dollar, which had hit two-weeks low before the jobs data was released, and expectations were grim.
However, January jobs increased by 130,000 beat most forecast while the unemployment rate came down to 4.3%, pointing to a stabilising jobs market.
The Dow rose 207 points (0.4%), with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite climbing 0.8%. The jobs report from the Bureau of Labour Statistics came five days late on Wednesday, February 11, due to the partial government shutdown.
It is one of the most closely watched indicators of economic momentum and will be critical for gauging the strength of the labour market. Now all eyes are on the consumer price index as another key datapoint to be released this week that could steer market sentiments.
Markets had shown mixed signals the previous day. Dow Jones hit a record 50,135.87, S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed, led by Nvidia, Broadcom, and Oracle, in the last trading session.
Analysts tempered expectations for January’s employment figures, pointing to signs of slowing job creation in proxy data like the recent ADP private-sector report, which showed only modest gains to start the year. Broad labour market measures last month signalled subdued hiring, making the upcoming official numbers especially important for assessing whether the slowdown persists or the market finds more resilience.
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