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US Markets: Wall Street continued to extend the gains on Friday, 5 November, with all the three major US indices hitting fresh record highs, propelled by the favourable macroeconomic data. The prestigious Dow Industrials inched closer to the psychological mark of 36,500 for the first time, whereas the broader S&P 500 surpassed 4,700 for the first time ever and the tech leader Nasdaq Composite strengthened over 16,000.
The US payroll data has backed the investors’ sentiments as the American economy added 531,000 jobs in October 2021, surpassing the street estimates as the overall Covid activity in the country continued to decline. This has been the biggest addition in the number of employees in the last three months as employers are willingly offering higher wages to attract skilled workers, at a time when a section of industry grapples with the acute limitedness of human capital.
Of the major contributors in the jobs growth, the leisure and hospitality sector contributed majorly, followed by manufacturing and business services, the data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. Cumulatively, these three sectors added more than 320,000 jobs in October of 2021 as growth in the national economy accelerated on the path of recovery with the businesses resuming their operations on a larger scale.
Global Markets reach new heights
Supplementing the new jobs addition, the unemployment rate in the US declined to 4.6% in the corresponding month, striking the fresh low since March of 2020. The rising demand for labour, alleviating fears of Covid-19 and vacancies remaining at record levels collectively helped in subsiding the rate of unemployment. However, the rate is still considerably above the pre-Covid level of around 3.5%.
The NYSE-controlled Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 307.54 points, or 0.85% to 36,431.77, the tech heavy barometer Nasdaq Composite rose 97.97 points, or 0.61% to 16,038.28, while the wider share index S&P 500 surged 32.10 points, or 0.69% to 4,712.16.
US Market News: Shares of Visa, Walt Disney, Boeing, American Express, Dow, Intel, Travelers Companies, IBM, Nike, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell International, McDonald’s and Chevron emerged as the lead gainers among the 30-constituent benchmark Dow Industrials. On the other hand, shares of Merck & Co provided the major negative points to the index with the stock sliding more than 9%, followed by marginal drops in shares of Walmart and Johnson & Johnson.
Shares of Qualcomm, Booking Holdings, Trip.com Group, Nvidia, MercadoLibre, Microchip Technology, Monster Beverage, Match Group and Starbucks gained 3-7% among Nasdaq components. The upswing in stocks of Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet also supported the index, whereas shares of Peloton crashed more than 30% after the exercise equipment and streaming corporations lowered the forecast with the July-September earnings falling short of analysts’ estimates.
UK Markets: Following a market-wide burying, London equities extended the winning streak with the benchmark FTSE 100 trading over 7,300 for most part of the day. The market index registered a fresh 20-month high at 7,331.25, up 0.71% from the previous close of 7,279.91. However, the index surrendered gains partly in the terminal deals. At 1530 GMT, the headline index was trading 27.58 points, or 0.38% higher at 7,307.49.
Barring the heavyweight shares of AstraZeneca, the top seven stocks by market capitalisation oscillated in the positive territory with shares of HSBC Holdings, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and British American Tobacco rising more than 1%. The mid-cap index FTSE 250 traded in a largely similar manner with the barometer adding 117.23 points, or 0.50% to 23,588.34.
FTSE 100 (5 November)
Source: EODHD/Others
Market Snapshot
Top 3 volume leaders: Lloyds Banking Group, International Consolidated Airlines and Vodafone Group
Top 3 sectoral indices: Telecommunications, Consumer Services and Medical Services
Bottom 3 sectoral indices: Automotive, Industrial Transportation and Industrial Chemicals
Crude oil prices: Brent crude up 2.27% at $82.75/barrel; US WTI crude up 3.34% at $81.44/barrel
Gold prices: An ounce of gold traded at $1,813.05, up 1.09%
Exchange rate: GBP vs USD - 1.3493, down 0.04% | GBP vs EUR - 1.1677, down 0.04%
Bond yields: US 10-Year Treasury yield - 1.465% | UK 10-Year Government Bond yield - 0.8425%
Markets @ 15:42 GMT
