Wall Street opens higher as sentiment recovers on US employment data

• The unemployment rate in the United States (US) fell to 3.5% in September.
• The CBOE Volatility Index drops near 5% on Friday.
• The S&P 500 Technology Index gains more than 1%.

Major equity indexes in the United States (US) staged a decisive rebound on Friday after the employment data from the United States (US) eased concerns over a possible recession. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both 0.7% on the day while the Nasdaq Composite was adding 0.9%.

Although the US Burea of Labor Statistics today reported that nonfarm payrolls (NFP) in September increased by 136,000 and fell short of the market expectation of 145,000, August’s reading got revised up to 168,000 from 130,000 and the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in nearly 50 years at 3.5%.

Reflecting the recovering market sentiment, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, is down nearly 5% on the day.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 Sectors, which are all in the positive territory in the first hour of the session, the risk-sensitive Technology Index is rising more than 1% in the early trade to lead the gains.