Major US equity indices opened with solid gains on the last trading day of the week as investors cheered stronger-than-expected May jobs report.
The US economy added 223K new jobs in May, which pushed the unemployment rate down to an 18-year low level of 3.8%. Meanwhile, wage growth was modest, with the yearly rate rising to 2.7% from 2.6%.
Against the backdrop of receding fears about political turmoil in Italy, today’s upbeat job figures boosted sentiment during the early hour and helped markets to recover from Thursday’s selloff triggered by returning fears of a full-blown global trade war.
The Trump administration decided to go ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Expectations of some retaliatory measures from the US’s biggest trading partners spooked investors on Thursday and dampened investor’ appetite for riskier assets – like equities.
At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up sharply by around 220-points to 24,636 and the broader S&P 500 Index added nearly 23-points to 2,728. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed over 65-points and jumped back above the 7,500 mark.
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