AIRLINK 175.55 Decreased By ▼ -2.01 (-1.13%)
BOP 11.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.36%)
CNERGY 8.29 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.47%)
FCCL 47.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.19%)
FFL 16.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.62%)
FLYNG 27.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.15%)
HUBC 142.32 Decreased By ▼ -4.59 (-3.12%)
HUMNL 13.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-1.55%)
KEL 4.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.33%)
KOSM 5.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.17%)
MLCF 61.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-0.35%)
OGDC 226.77 Decreased By ▼ -7.91 (-3.37%)
PACE 5.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.52%)
PAEL 44.80 Decreased By ▼ -1.61 (-3.47%)
PIAHCLA 17.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-1.32%)
PIBTL 10.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.95%)
POWER 12.02 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.25%)
PPL 185.92 Decreased By ▼ -5.88 (-3.07%)
PRL 37.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.43%)
PTC 24.05 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (3.66%)
SEARL 100.29 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-0.59%)
SILK 1.15 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
SSGC 38.51 Decreased By ▼ -1.20 (-3.02%)
SYM 14.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-1.86%)
TELE 7.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.4%)
TPLP 11.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.72%)
TRG 66.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.29 (-1.92%)
WAVESAPP 10.97 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-3.35%)
WTL 1.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.74%)
YOUW 3.78 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.27%)
BR100 12,826 Increased By 19.4 (0.15%)
BR30 38,861 Decreased By -842.2 (-2.12%)
KSE100 118,792 Decreased By -146.5 (-0.12%)
KSE30 36,779 Increased By 22.6 (0.06%)

NEW YORK: US stocks opened higher Wednesday, buoyed by private sector hiring data that will likely fuel calls for the Federal Reserve to consider interest rate cuts to boost the economy.

Private sector figures published by ADP on Wednesday showed that employers added 152,000 jobs last month, down from a revised 188,000 figure in April and less than analysts anticipated.

The US central Bank, which has a dual mandate to maximise sustainable employment and ensure stable prices, is likely to view this data as evidence that the labor market is softening.

Wall Street slips in choppy trading

This could boost the chances that policymakers will move sooner to cut interest rates from their current 23-year highs.

Around 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading up 0.1 percent at 38,737.88, while the broad-based S&P 500 was 0.3 percent higher at 5,309.26.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose the most of the three major Wall Street indexes, sitting 0.7 percent higher at 16,972.83.

“If you have fewer people working, that could imply an increase in the unemployment rate,” Steve Stovall from CFRA told AFP, responding to the private sector hiring data.

A higher unemployment rate would, he said, “give investors an idea that the economy is slowing, that more and more people will not be getting salaries with which to chase after increasingly expensive goods.”

“That would bring down inflation and increase the likelihood that the Fed will be able to start cutting rates later this year,” he added. “So bad is good.”

Amid a number of weaker-than-expected data releases, futures traders have in recent days raised their expectations of a rate cut by mid-September, according to data from CME Group.

Among individual stocks, tech company Hewlett Packard was trading up 15 percent after beating earnings expectations.

Bath & Body Works was trading up more than four percent a day after the firm’s shares plunged on underwhelming earnings guidance.

Comments

Comments are closed.