(New York) The New York Stock Exchange ended a turbulent session lower, digesting the jobs report which showed both a slowing labor market and rising wages, raising fears for the US economy. inflation.
The Dow Jones ended down 0.55%, the NASDAQ fell 0.13% and the broader S
Throughout the session, Wall Street debated the Department of Labor’s monthly report, released ahead of the opening.
It showed 209,000 job creations in June, less than the 220,000 expected by economists, a figure to which must be added a downward revision of 110,000 jobs for the months of April and May.
“The job market is decelerating, but workers are still in short supply, as evidenced by the unemployment rate, which fell from 3.7% to 3.6%”, commented, in a note, Jose Torres , from Interactive Brokers.
“This indicates that the labor market, and the US economy more generally, is resilient,” said Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial.
The picture was somewhat tarnished by the rise of 0.4% in the average salary over one month, more than the 0.3% expected, which fuels concerns about the persistence of inflation.
“Upward pressure on wages has subsided from the peak in early 2022, but remains too high for the Fed (US central bank),” argued Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.
Traders are attributing a higher probability than ever to a hike in the Fed’s key rate at its next meeting on July 25-26.
But they doubt the speech of the central bankers, for whom, in majority, several additional increases will be necessary by the end of the year.
On the bond market, the yield on 2-year government bonds thus eased, to 4.93% against 4.98% the previous day at the close.
Without conviction in the face of this contrasting picture, the indices oscillated within tight margins throughout the session, before going into the red shortly before the close.
“The market is in a waiting position” ahead of next week, which will see the CPI price index release on Wednesday and the start of the earnings season on Thursday and Friday, Quincy Krosby explained. “The jobs report helped the market catch its breath.”
On the odds, so-called defensive values, that is to say theoretically less sensitive to the economic situation, suffered, like the Merck laboratory (-2.46%), Walmart (-2.30%) or cable operator Verizon (-1.58%).
Conversely, several highly volatile stocks sparked, such as online payment group Block (4.12%), electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian (14.25%) and car sales platform used Carvana (21.09%).
Taking advantage of the recovery in black gold prices, oil stocks caught up after a disastrous first half, whether Halliburton (7.79%), SLB (formerly Schlumberger, 8.61%) or Phillips 66 (4.23%).
Elsewhere, Levi Strauss fell (-7.73%) after lowering its full-year forecast, in particular due to difficulties in sales activity to retailers in the United States. The icon brand of American jeans saw sales drop 22% in the second quarter in its home country.
Alibaba advanced (8.00%) after Chinese authorities fined its mobile payments subsidiary Ant Group around $1 billion. This decision marks the end of a government investigation that will have lasted several months and removes the uncertainty that weighed on the company.
Several other Chinese companies listed in New York followed, such as JD.com (4.93%) or NIO (4.50%).