Stock Market Rallies After Strong Jobs 06/02 09:57

   Stocks are rallying Friday after a strong report on the U.S. job market 
helped ease Wall Street's worries about a possible recession.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are rallying Friday after a strong report on the 
U.S. job market helped ease Wall Street's worries about a possible recession.

   The S&P 500 was 1% higher in early trading and on pace for a third straight 
winning week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 372 points, or 1.1%, at 
33,433, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

   They got a boost after a report showed employers unexpectedly accelerated 
their hiring last month. It's the latest signal that the job market remains 
remarkably solid despite much higher interest rates, and it offers a big pillar 
of support for an economy that's begun to slow.

   Perhaps more importantly for markets, increases for workers' pay also slowed 
even as hiring strengthened.

   While that may discourage workers trying to keep up with prices at the 
register, investors believe slower wage gains should mean less upward pressure 
on inflation across the economy. That in turn could allow the Federal Reserve 
to take it easier on its hikes to interest rates, which are aimed at lowering 
inflation by slowing the economy and have already caused damage in the banking 
and manufacturing industries.

   The unemployment rate also rose by more than expected last month, moving up 
to 3.7% from a five-decade low. That implies a bit more slack in the job market 
and seems to conflict with the gangbusters hiring numbers, whose data comes 
from a separate survey.

   "The reality is probably somewhere in between," said Brian Jacobsen, chief 
economist at Annex Wealth Management.

   "One thing that is striking is that if you compare aggregate payrolls today 
to the pre-COVID trend, we still have more than a four million job hole to 
fill-in," he said. "COVID led to strange times, a strange recovery and an even 
stranger slowdown."

   Following the report, traders were largely expecting the Fed to hold 
interest rates steady at its next meeting in two weeks. If it does, that would 
be the first time it hasn't hiked rates in more than a year.

   A pause on rate hikes would offer breathing room for an economy that's 
already seen manufacturing contract sharply for months.

   Higher rates have also hurt many smaller and mid-sized banks because their 
customers have pulled deposits in search of higher interest by money-market 
funds. The Fed's furious flurry of hikes, meanwhile, has also hurt the value of 
investments banks made when rates were low.

   Several high-profile bank failures since March have shaken the market, 
leading Wall Street to hunt for the next possible weak links. Several of those 
under heavy scrutiny rallied following the jobs report. PacWest Bancorp rose 
5.8%, for example, to trim its loss for the year to roughly 69%.

   But Fed officials have also warned recently that a pause on rate hikes in 
June wouldn't necessarily mean the end to hikes.

   Traders are increasingly expecting the Fed to follow up a June pause with a 
July hike to interest rates, according to data from CME Group. That helped push 
Treasury yields higher.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 3.63% from 3.60% late Thursday. 
It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.

   The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for Fed 
action, rose to 4.41% from 4.34%.

   Also helping to support Wall Street was the Senate giving final approval 
late Thursday to a deal that will allow the U.S. government to avoid a 
potentially disastrous default on its debt.

   The move was widely expected by investors, and the deal moves next to 
President Joe Biden for his signature.

   Stock markets abroad were also mostly higher.

   In Europe, France's CAC 40 jumped 1.7%, and Germany's DAX returned 1.1%.

   In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Sang soared 4%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.2%.