Stocks wrap winning week as job creation roars back in June
U.S. equity markets rallied Thursday after the June jobs report showed the nation's employers brought more workers on board than expected during a gradual reopening of the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 92 points or 0.36 percent giving up the bulk of earlier gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.45 percent while the Nasdaq posted its 23rd record close of the year adding 0.52 percent.
For the week all three of the major averages posted healthy gains for the shortened week. Financial markets and government officers are closed on Friday in observance of Independence Day.
Nonfarm payrolls added 4.8 million workers in June, pushing the unemployment rate down to 11.1 percent, according to the Labor Department. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting the addition of 3 million jobs, with unemployment dropping to 12.3 percent.
Tempering the hiring gains, jobless claims for the week ended June 27 totaled 1.427 million, the Labor Department said, raising the total of first-time unemployment filings to over 48 million since stay-at-home orders were issued in March.
Looking at stocks, American Airlines warned 2021 international capacity would be down about 25 percent from 2019 and that it was overstaffed by about 8,000 flight attendants. The carrier and others -- from Frontier to SkyWest, Hawaiian and Spirit -- agreed to terms on loans from the U.S. Treasury intended to help the industry weather the coronavirus downturn.
Cruise operator Carnival Corp., meanwhile, has secured credit lines of $1.86 billion and of 800 million euros through private lenders. Elsewhere in the space, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings suspended all of its Alaskan cruises for September and a portion of its trips for October, putting the remainder of the season in jeopardy.
McDonald’s put its reopening of dine-in service on hold due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases. The burger chain said restaurants will have to wait up to three weeks before expanding their services.
Electric-vehicle maker Tesla delivered 90,650 vehicles during the second quarter, outpacing an average estimate of 74,130 from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The report comes after the investment bank Wedbush hiked its price target on the automaker's stock to $1,250 a share on Wednesday and assigned a $2,000 target for its bull-case scenario.
Tesla on Wednesday became the most valuable carmaker in the world, topping Toyota Motor Corp.
Utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co., faulted in deadly California wildfires, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The wildfire victims trust will own about 22.2 percent of the reorganized firm after receiving $5.4 billion in cash and stock.
Lemonade, the insurance startup backed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at $50.06 on Thursday. The company priced its initial public offering at $29 on Wednesday evening.
On the commodities front, West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed over 2 percent to $40.65 a barrel while gold posted fractional gains settling at $1,784. an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys fell, causing the yield on the 10-year note to rise to 0.670 percent.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX paced advances, up 2.84 percent, while France’s CAC and Britain’s FTSE rose 2.49 percent and 1.34 percent, respectively.
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Asian markets were higher across the board as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.85 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite rallied 2.13 percent and Japan’s Nikkei ticked up 0.11 percent.
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