A mixed, if hardly disastrous, non-farm jobs report, combined with the cautious optimism of January’s US-China trade talks, gave the Dow Jones another reason to rally on Friday.
With the unemployment rate creeping up to 4.0%, wage growth falling from 0.4% to 0.1%, and a blockbuster non-farm number of 304k being undermined by the sharp downwards revision to the previous month’s figure, the jobs report worked in the Dow’s favour by failing to give the Fed any reason to change its dovish outlook from Wednesday.
The US index leapt 180 points after the bell, pushing the Dow near 25200 for the first time in effectively 2 months. This helped the European indices up their own gains; the CAC rose 0.6%, while the FTSE crossed 7000 as it jumped 0.7%. Only the DAX lagged behind, the German bourse unmoving at 11150.
Contributing to the FTSE’s 7000-breaking rise was the fact sterling had a tough end to an already troublesome week. Following a worse than forecast UK manufacturing PMI, the pound fell 0.3% against the dollar, striking a one-week plus low of $1.3074, and 0.4% against the euro, taking it to €1.1141.
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