Wall Street close: Benchmarks bounce back into positive territories

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA, climbed 483.22 points, or 1.7%, to end at 29,290.85,
• The S&P 500 added 37.10 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 3,334.69.
• The Nasdaq Composite Index put on 40.71 points, 0.4%, ending Wednesday at 9,508.68.

US benchmarks rallied to fresh highs on Wednesday for the third consecutive session while Wall Street stocks extended gains in recovery from Friday’s rout and fear on the coronavirus contagion. However. the Chinese stimulus and efforts to contain the virus along with word of a vaccine in the making helped investors to brush of the concerns enabling stocks to return to their prior highs on Wall Street. Also, US data continues to come in positive, lifting spirits.

Subsequently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA, climbed 483.22 points, or 1.7%, to end at 29,290.85, while the S&P 500 added 37.10 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 3,334.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index put on 40.71 points, 0.4%, ending Wednesday at 9,508.68. For the week, the Dow is up 3.7%, the S&P 500 3.4%, and the Nasdaq has gained 3.9%.

US jobs up

January ADP jobs rose 291k, confirming that the labour market got off to a brisk start for 2020. “It was the strongest number since May 2015. Job gains were concentrated in medium-sized firms (50–499 employees), which hired 128k workers. Small firms hired 94k and large firms hired 69k. Goods producing jobs added 54k and services rose 237k. The US have not had a recession, since the Bretton-Woods/Smithsonian Agreement, without service sector jobs contracting. So the data will lift growth and earnings expectations,” analysts at ANZ Bank explained. 

Also, the anlaysts broke down how the January composite PMI improved to 51.3 vs the preliminary release at 50.9: “The services index rose to 52.5 vs 52.2, which suggests no impact on services in late January from the coronavirus. It was the strongest composite release since August last year, indicating a modest firming in activity at the beginning of 2020. The breakdown of the index was also encouraging. Five of the seven sub-components are now above 50.”

DJIA levels