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Stocks traded higher Thursday afternoon, with upside moves in some big tech names supporting the Nasdaq, as investors continue to track developments in the bond market ahead of Friday's crucial nonfarm-payroll report.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty
Updated at 2:25 PM EST
Mortgage rates have dropped to the lowest level since August, falling for the sixth week in a row, writes Dan Weil. Read more about the trend in mortgage rates and what it means for those looking to buy a house.
Related: What the trend in mortgage rates means for your home-buying decision
Updated at 11:40 AM EST
Holding gain
Markets appear content to hold these early gains into the mid-day session, with the S&P 500 up 29 points, or 0.63%, following a solid early start, while 10-year note yields are easing from opening levels to around 4.127% following the earlier jobs data.
Stocks gave back the rally that initially followed yesterday’s soft ADP jobs report and market-friendly productivity and costs data," said Chris Larking, managing director for trading and investing at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. "We’ll see if they can hold on to today’s pre-market gains, but right now the market appears to be in wait-and-see mode until tomorrow morning’s monthly jobs data."
Updated at 9:34 AM EST
Solid open
Stocks are getting an early boost from the staid job numbers, as well as the weaker U.S. dollar, with the S&P 500 rising 24 points, or 0.5%, at the opening bel and the Dow gaining around 90 points.
The Nasdaq, helped by Google (5.3%) and AMD (+4%), is up 120 points, or 0.85%.
Updated at 8:50 AM EST
Jobs market mystery
After a softer-than-expected reading for private sector job creation from payroll processing group ADP yesterday, today's figures on weekly unemployment claims from the Commerce Department are something of a head-scratcher.
Weekly jobless claims rose by only 1,000, to 220,000, over the period ending on December 2, with the four-week average virtually unchanged at 220,750.
Job market resilience, a key plank in the Fed's "higher for longer" interest rate mantra, will face a sterner test tomorrow with the November payroll report, which is expected to show 180,000 new hires and moderately slowing wage gains.
Updated at 7:23 AM EST
Twin set
Google parent Alphabet shares are the notable pre-market mover, rising more than 3.4% following the launch of its new AI tool set, Gemini, that will power Bard and its other AI-focused products.
Related: Google targets Microsoft, ChatGPT with huge new product launch
Stock Market Today
The global bond market is extending its historic rally this week, pulling benchmark 10-year note yields to the lowest levels since June. The move marks a 90-basis-point (0.9-percentage-point) decline since late October on bets that the Federal Reserve, as well as other central banks around the world, have reached the end of their rate-hiking cycles.
Parallel to those moves, however, is corresponding concern that some central banks, including the Fed, may have left their intentions to cut rates too late. That could stoke the risk of recession even if they're able to tame the lingering inflation pressure tied to the global pandemic.
That in turn has kept stock gains muted this week, and it looks to hold gains in check again Thursday. Investors are looking to weakening industrial data from Germany and oil prices that are hovering near the lowest levels since June, as indications of ongoing weakness in the global economy.
Brent crude contracts for February delivery were last marked 42 cents higher on the session at $74.72, having closed below $75 for the first time in five months. WTI futures for January, meanwhile, were 30 cents higher but still trading below the $70 mark.
In the bond market, benchmark 10-year note yields inched higher, to 4.155%, in overnight trading while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.613.%.
The U.S. dollar index, meanwhile, was marked 0.22% lower at 103.921 following the biggest single-day gain for the yen since January following comments on the end of zero-interest-rate policy from Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda.
On Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is flat for the month, are indicting a 4 point opening bell bump while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are suggesting a 35 point pullback.
Big gains for Google (GOOG) -) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -), meanwhile, are giving the Nasdaq a boost, with the tech-focused index called 50 points higher.
In overseas markets, European stocks were drifting lower in early Frankfurt trading, with the Stoxx 600 down 0.3%. Data confirmed that the regional economy, and the world's biggest economic bloc, contracted by 0.01% over the third quarter.
Overnight in Asia, the first expansion for exports from China in six months in November failed to reverse the long decline in domestic stocks. It also pulled the MSCI ex-Japan index 0.42% lower into the close of trading.
Japan's Nikkei 225, meanwhile, closed 1.76% lower following the 1.5% leap in the yen, which was last marked at 144.93 against the greenback.
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