US Stock Markets Today: S&P 500, Dow Jones Rise After Increase In Payrolls

S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose on Thursday, extending gains after a stronger-than-expected jobs report. The payrolls increased 1.47 lakh after slight upward revisions in the last two months. Additionally, the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%.

This comes after S&P 500 and Nasdaq reclaimed record highs on Wednesday, boosted by President Donald Trump’s announcement of a trade deal with Vietnam.

The S&P 500 rose over 0.37%, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and Dow were up 0.61% and 0.20%, respectively. The markets are scheduled for an early 1 p.m. close ahead of the Independence Day and the markets will be closed on Friday.

US stocks advanced to a new high, with technology companies leading the charge, after the US-Vietnam trade deal, a move that fuelled optimism that more agreements are on the way. The S&P 500 gained 0.5% to 6,227 points, led by energy, materials and information tech. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat.

In the early minutes of trading, 10 of the 11 sectoral indices was trading in green. Consumer discretionary and financial sector were leading the gains while consumer staples was the only sector in negative.

Uber Technologies Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., shares were up nearly 2%, in addition Amazon.com Inc., Salesforce Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. were among the other gainers for the day. On the other hand, Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corp. and Apple Inc. also among the losers.

As the US market opened, spot gold fell 0.77% to $3,331.62 an ounce. Crude oil prices fell, with the Brent trading 0.49% lower at $68.77 per barrel.

The Bloomberg Dollar Index rises 0.2%, with the British Pound falling 0.3% to $1.3598, while the Japanese yen was down 0.9% at 144.92 per dollar.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, rose 0.2% to $109,418.62.