A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo/File Photo Obtain licensing rights
Aug 29 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes rose in early trade on Tuesday after a decline in the latest monthly payrolls boosted hopes that the US Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates.
The Job Opportunities and Employment Turnover Survey (JOLTS) conducted by the Department of Labor showed that the number of job vacancies reached 8.827 million in July, down for the third consecutive month, indicating easing labor market pressures. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the number of vacancies to be 9.465 million.
Investors also analyzed another report from the Conference Board which showed that consumer confidence in the US fell to 106.1 in August, compared to expectations of 116.
“Both in the JOLTS and the consumer confidence number, you’re seeing exactly what you want to see, which is a gradual decline,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
“All of these things paint a picture of the possibility of a soft landing.”
Multiple sets of economic data are scheduled for release this week, including the personal consumption expenditures price index and the non-farm payrolls.
The lack of hard-line surprises in Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments at the Jackson Hole symposium last week cooled stocks on Monday, with the focus now on economic data to gauge how long the central bank can keep interest rates high.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell to 4.14%, supporting most growth stocks, with returns for Amazon (AMZN.O), Tesla (TSLA.O) and NVIDIA (NVDA.O) rising between 0.8% and 2.6%.
Alphabet (GOOGL.O) rose 2.2% after Google’s parent company unveiled a slew of new AI technology and partnerships.
Catalent shares rose 7 percent after the contractor drug company reached a settlement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management for a review. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Health Sector Index (.SPXHC) rose 0.3%.
At 10:19 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 133.71 points, or 0.39%, to 34,693.69, and the S&P 500 (.SPX) rose 29.35 points, or 0.66%, to 4,462.66. The Compound (.IXIC) rose 133.76 points, or 0.98%, to 13,838.89 points.
Salesforce (CRM.N) shares fell 1% after JPMorgan removed the business software maker from its US analyst focus list.
Shares of Verizon (VZ.N) and AT&T (TN) rose about 3% each after Citi upgraded the two telecom companies to “buy” from “neutral”.
Shares of US-listed PDD Holdings (PDD.O) rose 18.6% after the e-commerce company beat estimates for second-quarter revenue.
The advance issues outnumbered losers by 2.65 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange and 2.03 to 1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P posted nine 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq posted 28 new highs and 61 new lows.
(Reporting by Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Reporting by Muhammad for The Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Shonak Dasgupta
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