Dow Djia: Stock Prices and Ftse Russell

dow djia: Despite Friday's pullback in stock prices on the better-than-expected payrolls data, the blue-chip Dow DJIA, -0.43% ended the week up 1.2%, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.48% was up 1.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite index COMP, -0.78% rose 1.9%, leaving all three benchmarks within striking distance of all-time highs, according to Market Watch. The jobs report is reassuring investors that the domestic economy is solid, Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell, told Market Watch. The U.S. labor market saw the best jobs growth of the year in June, but markets are still seeing a 100% probability of an interest-rate cut at the Federal Reserve's next meeting, set for July 30-31, and these hopes are helping to drive stocks to record highs. Nevertheless, he still expects the Fed to cut interest rates as insurance, in case data on the U.S. economy start to take a serious turn for the worse. To find any justification for this cut, you have to look globally, Young added, arguing that slowing global economic growth, combined with unconventional monetary policy in Europe and Japan, have caused global investors to flock to U.S. government bonds, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury TMUBMUSD10Y, 0.20% since May yielding less than the target federal funds rate of between 2.25% and 2.5%. Labor-market data tend to be a lagging indicator, while more forward-looking data still suggest U.S. economic growth is weakening as Trump's approach to trade policy undermines business confidence and spending globally. U.S. payrolls increased by 224,000 in June, according to the monthly Department of Labor report released on Friday, recovering from May's weak result of 72,000 jobs created, but employment growth in 2019 has averaged 172,000 jobs per month, well below 2018's average of 223,000 per month, suggesting U.S. economic growth may be at least reverting to the mean after last year's boost after the Trump tax overhaul in late 2017. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.