Growth in the USA services sector slowed in September as sales fell and new orders plunged, evidence that stock market volatility may have hit consumer confidence and limited spending. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 34 points, or 1.7 percent, to 1,985 and the Nasdaq composite rose 68 points, or 1.4 percent, to 4,776. They were up as much as 20 percent from Friday’s closing price, before stabilizing with an 11 percent gain at 1.05 pounds in London.
Advertisement
Australian shares rallied 1.9 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.8 percent and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5 percent.
USA stocks staged a comeback Friday after plunging at the open as investors reacted to a weaker-than-expected September jobs report.
“The print will completely rule out this month for a rate rise in the United States and will put the December meeting in doubt”. Ultra-low interest rates in place since the 2008 financial crisis have helped push up stock prices.
Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, told Reuters on Monday that he still expected the Fed to raise rates this year despite the “weak” jobs report. “The soft jobs numbers in the last two months certainly make October rate lift-off an even more unlikely endeavor for a data-dependent Fed“.
GE gained 4 percent to $26.49 after Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management disclosed a roughly 1 percent stake.
The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.1235 after climbing to as high as $1.1319 on Friday, a 10-day peak. Google announced earlier this year that it would reorganize. This would allow investors to see how well Google’s core business was doing, separate from its more experimental ventures like driverless cars.
Monday was the first day the company started trading as Alphabet. Dorsey had been interim CEO since June.
ENERGY: Benchmark US crude gained 54 cents to $46.08 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Steel, energy, computer hardware, and telecom stocks are also seeing considerable strength amid a broad based rally.
The weakest sector was the S&P health index .SPXHC , up 0.2 percent.
German Bund yields dropped to 4-month troughs and the 30-year Japanese government bond yield slid to its lowest since late April.
Advertisement
The dollar was little changed at 119.975 yen after gyrating between 120.415-119.90 yen on Friday in the wake of choppy post-U.S.jobs data trade. Brent crude climbed 0.3 per cent to US$48.27 a barrel after it finished almost 1 percent on Friday.
