NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – A surprisingly strong one US job market in April and a good quarterly balance sheet from Apple helped the US stock exchanges to stage a strong recovery on Friday. After four losing trading days in May in a row, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) rose by 1.65 percent to 33,674.38 points in early trading. The balance sheet for the first week of May was nevertheless disappointing with a minus of 1.2 percent. Experience has shown that May is a weak stock market month.
The market-wide S&P 500 rose by 1.85 percent to 4136.25 points on Friday. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 even rose by 2.13 percent to 13,259.13 points, reaching its highest level since August 2022. Last but not least, the high price gains of the heavyweight Apple helped here.
In the US, employment expanded much more strongly than expected in April. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell more than expected and hourly wages rose more than economists had forecast.
“It’s unbelievable how well the labor market is doing,” was the initial conclusion of economist Thomas Gitzel from VP Bank. However, the US Federal Reserve could face a dilemma: if the labor market remains strong, the central bank cannot simply lower interest rates. “On the stock exchanges, people are already toying with interest rates that will soon be lower again,” says the expert.
The shares of the technology group Apple rose by almost five percent to their highest level since August 2022. In the first quarter, the company scored above all with its still most important product iPhone and thus braced itself against the slack in the smartphone market. This caused an overall upbeat mood on the US stock exchanges. In addition, Apple raised the dividend and promised further share buybacks for 90 billion US dollars.
Microchip Technology, on the other hand, fell 1.2 percent. Looking at the semiconductor manufacturer’s quarterly figures, analysts identified risks related to high inventories and demand.
Shares in ride-hailing service provider Lyft fell nearly 20 percent. Looking at the quarterly figures of Uber’s counterparty, Barclays Bank spoke of uncompetitive prices. The situation could only improve after 2023.
The share prices of some US regional banks, which had crashed the day before, recovered, in some cases strongly. That’s how Western Alliance shot
In foreign exchange trading, the euro initially came under pressure after the good US job market report, but then completely recovered from the losses. Most recently, the common currency was quoted at 1.1018 US dollars. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.1014 (Thursday: 1.1074) US dollars. The dollar had thus cost 0.9079 (0.9030) euros.
Quotations on the bond market came under pressure. The futures contract for ten-year bonds (T-Note future) fell by 0.68 percent to 115.77 points. In return, the return on ten-year paper rose to 3.44 percent./bek/he
— By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX —