Wall Street’s main indexes are largely subdued after closing near record highs in the previous session, while a downwards payrolls revision kept intact bets of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
The US economy likely created 911,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, the government said, suggesting that job growth was already stalling before US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imports.
Bets on a 25 basis point cut, that was already priced in, were intact while ones on a jumbo 50 bps reduction remained at about 10 per cent, as per CME’s FedWatch tool.
Labor market indicators recently have already cast concerns across the minds of investors and Fed officials alike, with non-farm payroll data for July and August confirming weakening labour market conditions.
In early trading on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31.09 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 45,546.04, the S&P 500 gained 3.98 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 6,499.13 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 5.91 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 21,804.61.
Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar’s capital city Doha boosted already rising oil prices, that lifted the energy sector 1.8 per cent.
UnitedHealth gained 3.2 per cent after the health insurer said it expects enrolment in top-rated Medicare insurance plans to be in line with its expectations.
Inflation reports due this week will also be on investors’ radar to gauge the effects of Trump’s tariff policies on the US economy and whether a case could be made for a bigger rate cut.
“Given the recent softness in the labour market data, even if we were to see elevated inflation data this week, the Fed would cut rates next week,” said Chris Kampitsis, managing partner at Barnum Financial Group.
“But that would be a ‘one and done’ rate cut, especially if inflation data remains elevated in the near-term.”
The three main indexes finished Monday’s session on a higher note, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing at a record, lifted by a rally in chip major Broadcom.
Wall Street has had a broadly positive start to September, a month deemed historically bad for US equities, with the benchmark index losing 1.5 per cent on average since 2000, data compiled by LSEG showed.
In other stocks, Nebius soared about 35 per cent after the AI infrastructure firm signed a $US17.4-billion ($A26.3 billion) deal with Microsoft.
Rival CoreWeave also rose 7.0 per cent.
US-listed shares of Teck Resources jumped 14 per cent as the miner agreed to merge with London-listed Anglo American on Tuesday.
Class B shares of Fox Corp and News Corp dipped 6.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.
Rupert Murdoch and his children reached an agreement that will give the eldest son Lachlan Murdoch control over the media empire.
Albemarle plunged 11 per cent, the biggest decliner on the S&P 500, on easing supply concerns after Chinese battery giant CATL expected to resume production at a lithium mine.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.26-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.28-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 52 new highs and 45 new lows.
https://thewest.com.au/business/markets/wall-street-subdued-after-us-employment-figures-revised-c-19966622
