Good Evening. Here is everything you need to know about today’s recap on the in’s and out’s of the major market and economic events.
Stocks shook off earlier losses to generally rise Friday afternoon. Investors regarded a much stronger-than-expected jobs data as boosting the case for the Federal Reserve to continue down its more hawkish monetary policy path.
During Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.52% to 4,500.53, while the Dow lost steam to settle at 35,089.74. The Nasdaq surged 1.58% to 14,098.01 points.
LABOR MARKET
On Friday, investors focused their attention on new labor market data, which showed that employment growth was much stronger than predicted despite the early-year rise in Omicron cases. Payrolls increased by 467,000, much exceeding the 125,000 projected, while December employment growth were revised upwards to more than half a million. The labor force participation rate increased significantly, while average hourly earnings increased by 5.7 percent, the most since May 2020.
Following a series of other weakening data points on the status of the labor market, including ADP’s private payrolls report earlier this week, which showed the first decline in private-sector employment in more than a year, the latest jobs report came as a surprise. However, as the economy continues to improve, Friday’s report might provide ammunition for the Federal Reserve’s hawks to go on with their plans to raise interest rates and tighten policy in the short term.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Bitcoin prices (BTC-USD) rose over 10% Friday afternoon to cross the $40,000 mark, marking the highest single-day gain in months for the largest cryptocurrency by market size as digital currency prices matched rises in major tech companies.
Also, the prices of Ether, LiteCoin, and XRP all rose significantly. Stocks tied to cryptocurrencies rose as well, with Coinbase (COIN) up 7.24% and MicroStrategy (MSTR) up more than 15%.
Have a Great Weekend!