US markets end with strong gains of over 2% each on Friday

07 Jan 2023 Evaluate

The US markets started the session on cautious note but soon gained momentum and ended with strong gains of over 2% each on Friday. Rally on the Wall Street came as data from the Labor Department showed employment in the U.S. increased by slightly more than expected in the month of December. The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 223,000 jobs in December after surging by a revised 256,000 jobs in November. Street had expected employment to shoot up by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 263,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in December from a revised 3.6 percent in November. The unemployment rate was expected to come in unchanged compared to the 3.7 percent originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, investors hoped that the report from the Institute for Supply Management showing U.S. service sector activity unexpectedly contracted in the month of December will convince the Federal Reserve to continue to slow their aggressive pace on interest rate hikes. The ISM said its services PMI tumbled to 49.6 in December from 56.5 in November, with a reading below 50 indicating a contraction. Street had expected the index to edge down to 55.0. With the much bigger than expected decrease, the index indicated a contraction for the first time since May 2020, when it hit 45.2.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 700.53 points or 2.13 percent to 33,630.61, Nasdaq rose 264.05 points or 2.56 percent to 10,569.29 and S&P 500 was up by 86.98 points or 2.28 percent to 3,895.08.

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