US stocks climb on strong jobs data
On the last trading day of the week, major US equity indices witnessed a positive opening led by upbeat monthly jobs data.
According to the official monthly jobs report, released by the Labor Department, the US economy added 222K new jobs in June and reaffirmed the underlying strength in the labor market. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.4% and average hourly earnings posted below expected growth of 0.2% in June.
A strong headline NFP print, alongside an upward revision of readings for April and May, reinforced market expectations that the Fed would continue with its plan to normalize monetary policy.
Today's up-move comes after yesterday's sell-off led by renewed selling pressure in technology stocks and sharp rally in global bond yields led by recent hawkish rhetoric by various major central banks.
Meanwhile, a fresh leg of sell-off in crude oil prices weighed on investors' appetite for riskier assets and kept a lid on any sharp up-move, at least for the time being.
At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added over 50-points to 21,374, while the broader S&P 500 Index climbed around 7-points to 2,417. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index spiked nearly 35-points and moved back above the 6,100 mark.