Nerves are running high on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors brace for the first of three public sector announcements to come this week. The S&P D and the Nasdaq were up 0.1% at the open, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged. Data on jobs for February is due to be announced this morning, with economists forecasting about 10.4 million. Along with the weekly unemployment report reported on Thursday and Friday in March, labor market data could paint a more rosy picture for the federal government to consider at its next meeting.
HERE IS A FRAGMENT OF THE MESSAGE UPDATE. AP’s previous story appears below.
Wall Street showed modestly higher Tuesday ahead of the first of three government jobs reports this week that pointed to a sharper outlook for the U.S. employment situation ahead of the next Federal Reserve meeting.
Futures of the benchmark S&P 500 rose about 0.3%, while the Dow industrials trailed by less than 0.2%.
On Tuesday, the US reports the number of openings in February. That followed the announcement of the weekly vacation on Thursday and the month of March, they report on Friday.
A strong job market, over four decades of high inflation, has pushed policy makers at the Federal Reserve to raise the central bank’s main lending rate by 30 consecutive points since last March. In its latest quarterly economic projections, policymakers have announced that they expect to raise their key once-from a new level of about 4.9% to 5.1%, at the same peak they projected in December.
At his council meeting last month, H raised its key interest rate by a quarter-point in spite of that higher borrowing rates could become worse, the uproar that is caught up with the system in the next few weeks.
On the international front, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that inflation in primary economies fell to 8.8% in February from 9.2% in January. Inflation rates remained above 20% in Hungary, Latvia and Turkey, but overall inflation fell in 23 of the 38 OECD economies.
Energy prices were a major factor in the lift, although oil prices rose after producing countries announced on Sunday that they will cut output from May 1 through the end of the year. That could potentially slow efforts to tame broader inflation.
In southern Europe at the time, Germany’s DAX gained 0.9% and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.6% while Britain’s FTSE 100 was essentially flat.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gold was 0.2% higher at 7,236.00 after Central bank of Australia keeping its key interest rate unchanged at 3.60%
“The Board has taken the decision to hold interest rates steady this month to provide additional time to absorb the impact of rising interest rates to date and the economic outlook,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a statement, showing its usual delay. interest rate changes and their impact.
While Australia’s economy is much smaller than that of the US or the European Union, its central bank and New Zealand’s tend to “balance the tone of financial cycles” Ipek Ozkardeskaya swissquote.com it is said in the comment.
South Korea reported that its annual growth rate fell to a lower-than-expected 4.2% in March from 4.8% in March a year earlier. That has raised expectations that the central bank will keep its key interest rate at 3.5% when it meets next week.
Regional central banks have varied their policies as inflation in some areas but remains stubbornly high in others. Vietnam’s central bank raised interest rates on Monday to reflect that the slowest in the economy. Japan kept its key rate at minus 0.1% and China maintained credit easing pressure on its vital sector.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was due to make a policy on lending rates on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to 28,287.42, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.5% to 3,312.56. Hong Kong’s benchmark Seng lost 0.7% to 20,274.59.
Common fell in Bangkok. Goods in India and Taiwan are closed.
A barrel of US crude oil was 68 cents higher at $81.10 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped $4.75 to $80.42 on Monday after Saudi Arabia and other producers said they would cut production by 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year. Less oil being pumped means higher prices, as long as demand remains stable.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 67 cents to $85.60 in London. It gained $5.04 to $84.93 a barrel on Monday and is almost back to where it was a month ago.
In other trading Tuesday, the US dollar rose to 132.97 Japanese yen from 132.44 Japanese yen late Monday. The euro entered $1.0904 from $1.0905.
Shares in Virgin Orbit tumbled another 22% to 15 cents a share on Tuesday after Richard Branson’s company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A failed mission this year and the difficulty of raising funding for future missions forced the company to lay off most of its staff last week.
On Monday, big gains in energy stocks helped offset losses for some big technology stocks on Wall Street. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1%. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.3%.
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