The stock markets in the United States fluctuated and eventually ended the trading session higher except the S&P 500, down 0.03% today.
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Today, the Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy added 271,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate remained at 5%. In a statement, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said the United States continues to recover from the worst economic crisis and “October was the most robust month of job growth.”
The jobs report increased speculations that the Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates in December. The further improvement of the labor market is one of the major conditions of policymakers before implementing an interest rate hike.
In a statement, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said, some of the factors that would support the case for an interest rate hike include a stronger labor market and a reduced financial market stress.
[drizzle]Jim McDonald, chief investment strategist at Northern Trust Corp., told Bloomberg, “The job gains in October were a blowout. We took advantage of the weakness of August and September to put money to work in the international markets and high-yield. We seasonally would expect some strength through the end of the year, but the easy money had been made in the bounce back from the correction.”
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 17, 910.47 (+0.26%)
- S&P 500- 2,099.20 (-0.03%)
- NASDAQ- 5,147.12 (+0.38%)
- Russell 2000- 1,198.62 (+0.67%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,468.21 (+0.60%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,353.83(-0.17%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 10,988.03 (+0.92%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 19,265.60 (+0.78%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 22,867.33 (-0.80%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 3,793.37 (+2.36%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Walt Disney climbed more than 2% ton$115.69 per share. The company reported earnings of $0.95 per share for the fourth quarter, a 10%$ increase from $0.86 per share in the previous year. Its revenue rose 9% to $13.5 billion.
The shares of Qorvo, a provider of core technologies and radio frequency (RF) solutions, surged more than 23% to $55.55 per share. Mike Burton of Brean Capital reiterated his Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $70 per share. Qorvo reported quarterly earnings that exceeded the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The company posted earnings of $1.22 per share on $708.3 million revenue, up by 5.2% for its fiscal 2016 second quarter.
ZS Pharma gained more than 40% to $89.04 per share, the highest gainer among the companies listed on NASDAQ today. AstraZeneca agreed to acquire ZS Pharma for $2.7 billion.
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