Stock market news today: Stocks rise after surprise drop in US unemployment | December 8, 2023

Описание: #stocks #inflation #YahooFinance #recession #bitcoin #Biden #Stockmarket #coronavirus #memestocks #Fed #YahooFinance #investing #stockmarket #crypto

To get the latest market news check out finance.yahoo.com

Stocks gained Friday afternoon as investors continued to assess the US monthly jobs report, which could influence the case for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates. After an initial retreat, stocks turned positive as market watchers saw more evidence of a soft landing from the Fed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose nearly 0.3% or 100 points, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained nearly 0.4%.

The US unemployment rate fell unexpectedly to 3.7% in November, the nonfarm-payrolls report showed, reflecting signs that the labor market may not be cooling as quickly as many had initially thought.

Meanwhile, the economy added 199,000 jobs, up from the previous month's reading, as striking auto workers and Hollywood actors came back to the workforce.

The report will serve as a test for stocks, which rallied as investors grew optimistic that the Fed's rate hikes have peaked and a "soft landing" for the US economy is in the cards. Hints of labor market cooling in earlier data this week were taken as a sign the Fed's inflation fight is paying off.

Elsewhere, the UK antitrust regulator said Friday it will examine OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) for a potential merger probe. The move comes after AI buzz boosted tech stocks on Thursday, with gains for Alphabet (GOOGL) and AMD (AMD) after they introduced products.

In commodities, oil prices bounced back but are still on course for the longest run of losses in five years as the market weighs whether extra OPEC+ cuts will fend off a global glut. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures and Brent (BZ=F) crude futures were both about 2% higher.

For more on this article, please visit:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-...