The three major U.S. indexes ended on a positive note last week after the May jobs report came out above expectations.
The U.S. economy managed to add 339K new jobs compared to 294K registered previously and beating estimates of 193K. In the meantime, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7% up from 3.4% while the average hourly earnings decreased.
The Dow jumped 700 points on Friday marking its best day since January, the Nasdaq rose 1.07% to end its sixth straight week of advance, while the S&P500 index closed 1.45% higher.
Moreover, President Biden signed the debt ceiling bill into law this weekend after it passed the Senate averting a historical default. Both the stock market and the U.S. Dollar benefited from the recent positive news and the focus now will turn to the upcoming FOMC rate decision next week as investors will be looking at how the central bank will react to the current economic conditions.
On the other side, Gold extended its decline after facing strong selling pressure near the $1985 key resistance on stronger NFP figures that boosted demand for USD.
Conversely, WTI crude surged 4.6%, reaching $75 a barrel before stabilizing near the $73 mark after Saudi Arabia announced at the OPEC+ meeting that it will cut supply by another 1 million barrel-a-day in July.
Looking at today’s economic releases, traders await several PMI figures from both the UK and the Eurozone, while in the U.S. the services PMI is expected to have risen in May from 53.6 to 55.1. Likewise, forecasts are pointing to a rise in factory orders from 0.9% to 1.1%.
Economic Analyst
Amine Hiani