New York (December 9, 2017): Wall Street and other major global stock markets posted solid gains on Friday and the US dollar rose for a fifth straight day after data showed robust US job growth.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.74 percent, supported by news that Britain and the European Union had a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations.
US jobs grew at a strong clip in November even though the wage gains that could fuel inflation remain moderate. The US jobs report followed encouraging economic data from China and Japan that buoyed Asian shares.
“We have a continuation of an economy that has been pretty firm and pretty balanced for the better part of the last several years and that’s been good for stock prices,” Jason Ware — the chief investment officer at Salt Lake City-based Albion Financial Group said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.68 points (0.49 percent) to 24,329.16, the S&P 500 gained 14.52 points (0.55 percent) to 2,651.5, and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.24 points (0.4 percent) to 6,840.08.
Technology stocks such as Microsoft and Oracle helped pace the advance, building on the rebound from the selloff in the sector earlier in the week.
“Tech stocks, while they will act up here and there because people are going to look at them and say, ‘Wow, we have made a lot of money and we need to take some profits off the table,’ at the end of the day, they keep returning back to it because the quality of that trade is still pretty good,” Nathan Thooft — the co-head of global asset allocation at Boston-based Manulife Asset Management said.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.57 percent. Investors are continuing to watch a US tax bill moving through Congress that will slash corporate levies and may have been relieved that US lawmakers late on Thursday agreed to a temporary funding bill that averted a government shutdown.
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed the legislation to fund the federal government for two weeks. In Europe, the banks’ index jumped 2.2 percent after financial regulators reached a long-sought deal on Thursday to harmonize global banking rules.
The dollar index rose 0.12 percent, with the euro down 0.06 percent to $1.1764.
The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates at its December 12-13 policy meeting, but Friday’s jobs report could shape the debate on monetary policy next year.
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