US markets end higher on Friday

09 May 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Friday, extending their previous session’s gains, despite the Labor Department released a report showing a record nosedive in US employment in the month of April. The report said non-farm employment plummeted by 20.5 million jobs in April after tumbling by a revised 870,000 jobs in March. The steep drop in employment was not as bad as feared, however, as Street had expected employment to plunge by 22.0 million jobs compared to the loss of 701,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. Traders seem to believe the dismal jobs picture was already priced into the markets during the sell-off seen in late February and March.

Many are now looking ahead to an anticipated economic rebound as states begin to reopen following their coronavirus-induced lockdowns. Besides, market sentiments were helped by report that the US Trade Negotiator Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a phone call, which resulted in the two largest economies in the world agreeing to strengthen macroeconomic and public-health cooperation. The report signifies a softening of hostilities between Washington and Beijing after President Donald Trump accused China of mishandling the coronavirus outbreak and threatened to quash a bilateral trade pact between the nations.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 455.43 points or 1.91 percent to 24,331.32, Nasdaq rose 141.66 points 1.58 percent to 9,121.32 and S&P 500 was up by 48.61 points or 1.69 percent to 2,929.8. 

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