NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Wall Street is likely to start trading on Friday with significant discounts. The future on the S&P 500 fell significantly by 0.8 percent before the market. The focus is on the US labor market data for September, which was published before trading began. And these turned out surprisingly strong.
From the data it is clear that the US labor market remains in a robust position despite the significant interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve. Significantly more jobs were created in September than expected. As the US Department of Labor reported, 336,000 additional jobs were created in the private sector and the government. Economists had only expected an increase of 170,000. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent.
The data is fueling market expectations that the US Federal Reserve could stick to its hawkish interest rate policy for longer than expected to combat inflation. In response, the yield on the bond market rose significantly by 6.2 percent to 4.77 percent. The US dollar, meanwhile, is strengthening. The dollar index rose by 0.5 percent, the euro fell by 0.5 percent to 1.0493 dollars.
“As nice as the robustness of the labor market is, good news for the stock markets is rather bad at the moment,” says an initial assessment by Thomas Altmann, portfolio manager at QC Partners. They made another one Interest rate increase or at least consistently high key interest rates for a longer period of time are all the more likely.
Oil prices show little change. While the price of WTI rose by 0.2 percent, the Brent price fell by 0.4 percent.
Exxon with taxes – Pioneer Natural Resources with a price jump
Among the individual stocks, Exxon Mobil fell by 2.9 percent before the trading session. The oil company is apparently close to acquiring Pioneer Natural Resources, a mega takeover with a potential value of around $60 billion. The deal could be sealed in the coming days unless talks stall at the last minute, people familiar with the matter said. Pioneer’s shares jumped by 10.6 percent.
Tesla is down 3.1 percent. The electric car maker has reduced prices for its Model 3 and Model Y vehicle models in the USA. In addition, the price of the Model Y long-haul vehicle has been reduced. Tesla has already reduced the prices of its vehicles in the USA several times this year.
HP Inc shares fell 1.3 percent. Berkshire Hathaway sold another 3.1 million shares on Tuesday, reducing its stake in the PC and printer maker to less than 10 percent.
The South Korean telecom regulator wants to fine Google and Apple the equivalent of 48 million euros. It is an allegation that the companies abused their market dominance and violated the country’s regulations for mobile payments. The shares of Google parent Alphabet were down 1.5 percent, Apple fell 0.9 percent.
Levi Strauss is 2.5 percent cheaper. The jeans maker’s third-quarter profit fell short of expectations due to weak wholesale demand and an impairment charge related to its acquisition of the Beyond Yoga brand.
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US bonds
Maturity Yield Bp to VT Yield VT +/-Bp YTD
2 years 5.06 +5.0 5.01 64.3
5 years 4.75 +6.8 4.68 75.1
7 years 4.79 +7.0 4.72 82.0
10 years 4.77 +6.2 4.71 88.8
30 years 4.94 +5.3 4.89 97.0
FOREX last +/- % Fri, 8:56 Thu, 17:22 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.0493 -0.5% 1.0535 1.0524 -2.0%
EUR/JPY 156.82 +0.1% 156.95 156.37 +11.7%
EUR/CHF 0.9620 -0.1% 0.9631 0.9624 -2.8%
EUR/GBP 0.8656 +0.0% 0.8657 0.8655 -2.2%
USD/JPY 149.49 +0.7% 148.97 148.61 +14.0%
GBP/USD 1.2118 -0.6% 1.2169 1.2158 +0.2%
USD/CNH (Offshore) 7.3214 +0.2% 7.3119 7.3157 +5.7%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 27,497.84 +0.1% 27,497.30 27,832.18 +65.7%
CRUDE OIL most recently VT-Settlem. +/-% +/- USD% YTD
WTI/Nymex 82.50 82.31 +0.2% +0.19 +6.0%
Brent/ICE 83.70 84.07 -0.4% -0.37 +2.4%
METALS last day previous +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (spot) 1,812.93 1,820.29 -0.4% -7.36 -0.6%
Silver (spot) 21.02 20.93 +0.4% +0.09 -12.3%
Platinum (spot) 856.90 859.50 -0.3% -2.60 -19.8%
Copper future 3.60 3.55 +1.2% +0.04 -5.6%
YTD based on the previous day’s closing level
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2023 09:06 ET (13:06 GMT)