NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks bounced Monday after a steep sell-off last week, as optimism for an earlier central bank interest rate cut prevailed while investors digested a government report indicating weakness in the jobs market.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 percent to 43,906.26 while the broad-based S&P 500 Index surged 1.0 percent to 6,297.56.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3 percent to 20,924.29.
“We’re getting a pop after a drop,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA Research.
But he warned that “there’s still an awful lot of uncertainty out there regarding tariffs, regarding employment and whether it’s implying recession.”
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It appears increasingly possible that the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates to boost the economy when the rate-setting committee is next due to meet in September, he said.
But “we have to see additional data to decide whether an intra-meeting decline is warranted,” Stovall added.
The Fed has held off rate cuts for all of this year as officials monitor the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on consumer prices.
“There is a buy-the-dip effort underway to begin the week,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com in a note, of Monday’s market movements.
Looking ahead, markets are bracing for higher tariffs on dozens of economies to take effect Thursday.
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