The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained on Monday on hopes that the Federal Reserve could lower borrowing costs soon in response to the latest jobs data that dragged down Wall Street in the previous session.
A troubling nonfarm payrolls report on Friday confirmed a weakening U.S. job market, stoking fears of a potential slowdown in the world’s biggest economy.
The bets for a 25-basis-point cut now stand at 88%, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, while investors are also hopeful for a jumbo 50-bps cut, compared to no such expectation before the jobs data was released.
Numerous brokerages have revised calls for Fed interest-rate cuts. Barclays now anticipates three cuts of 25 bps each in 2025 compared with two earlier, while Standard Chartered expects a 50-bps trim in September – up from its earlier projection of a 25-bps reduction.
“Markets are trying to understand if the (September) rate cut is going to be enough to stave off further weakening of the economy and that’s why you see a market that is just neutral,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
At 09:37 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.85 points, or 0.02%, to 45,407.71, the S&P 500 gained 19.94 points, or 0.30%, to 6,501.20 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 159.56 points, or 0.74%, to 21,859.95.
Technology stocks up 0.9%, led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq higher. Broadcom gained 4.6%, extending its over 9% gain from Friday, while Nvidia edged up 1.5%.
Heavyweight industrial stocks countered gains on the blue-chip Dow.
All three indexes were hovering around intraday record highs hit on Friday.
This week, inflation data and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ benchmark payroll revision will be watched for further clues on the U.S. economic health and whether the reports could strengthen the case for a bigger rate cut.
With the Fed in a “blackout” period that bars public statements in the run-up to its September 16-17 meeting, markets will have to interpret economic data without fresh guidance from policymakers in the meantime.
The S&P and the Nasdaq logged gains last week, in a positive start to a historically dour September. The benchmark S&P 500 has lost 1.5% on average in the month – its worst month since 2000 – data compiled by LSEG shows.
Among other stocks, retail trading platform Robinhood Markets and marketing platform AppLovin gained 11.4% and 11%, respectively. The companies are set to join the S&P 500, effective September 22.
Hecla Mining climbed 9% on news of its forthcoming addition to the small-cap S&P 600 index.
EchoStar soared 21% after the telecommunications services firm agreed to sell wireless spectrum licenses to SpaceX for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion.
Other telecommunications companies fell, with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile slipping between 2.3% and 4.7%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.22-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.1-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 63 new highs and 38 new lows.
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