NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are ticking higher Thursday after the latest update on the job market suggested the Federal Reserve may feel less pressure to hike interest rates.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and is on track to close out its best week in nearly two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 266 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Stocks got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market, which fell after a report from the U.S. government said employers added 57,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That’s growth, which is good for the economy, but it was also short of the 100,000 jobs that economists expected and a slowdown from May’s hiring pace.
The weaker-than-expected result could keep pressure off inflation, which has been accelerating worldwide because of jumps in oil prices caused by the war with Iran. And if inflation can slow in upcoming months, now that oil prices are back below where they were before the war, the Federal Reserve may feel less need to raise interest rates several times this year.
That would be a relief for investors, who tend to love lower interest rates because they can give the economy a boost by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money and spend. Lower rates also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other investments.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell more sharply. Traders now see an 80% chance that the Fed and its new chair, Kevin Warsh, will not raise the federal funds rate at its meeting later this month. That’s up from the 71% chance seen a day earlier, according to data from CME Group.
“Warsh can wipe his brow,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. “The labor market isn’t overheating. Inflation expectations are moderating.”
Also helping Wall Street was a steadying for some stocks of computer chip companies. They’ve been under pressure recently on worries that their stock prices have shot too high in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology and that all the spending on chips and data centers may not result in as much profit and productivity growth as hoped.
After U.S. chip companies sank on Wednesday, South Korean chip giants tumbled even more sharply Thursday and dragged the Kospi index down 7.9%. That’s its worst drop since a 10% plunge a little more than a week ago.
On Wall Street, memory maker Micron Technology’s stock rose 2% Thursday and recovered some of its 10.6% drop from the day before. But Advanced Micro Devices fell 1.5% to add to its 6.9% loss from Wednesday.
Elsewhere on the U.S. market, the company behind LaCroix sparkling waters climbed 8.8% after National Beverage said it will pay a special dividend of $3.25 for each share that investors hold.
In the oil market, prices continued to sink on hopes for negotiations for a permanent end to the war with Iran. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.2% to $70.68 per barrel.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in Tokyo and Shanghai, along with Seoul. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.5%, while stocks sank 2% in Shanghai.
Indexes in Europe were stronger, and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.5%.