Stocks, Bonds Rebound, Dollar Dips As Investors Welcome Jobs Data: What's Driving Markets Friday?

U.S. stocks rebounded on Friday’s morning trading in New York, driven by strong corporate earnings and mixed labor market data that eased expectations of further September rate hikes.

The market-implied probability of a rate hike in September fell to 13% Friday, down from 20% a day earlier. Bonds rallied, after days of sharp rises in yields, while the dollar eased.

U.S. companies added 187,000 nonfarm payrolls in July, less than the 200,000 expected. The unemployment rate surprisingly fell to 3.5%, while wages grew slightly more than expected.

Amazon, Inc. AMZN’s positive quarterly data opened up the tech rally after days of heavy volatility. Apple, Inc. AAPL revenue disappointed, and the iPhone maker was the laggard among tech mega-caps.

Cues From Friday's Trading:

The S&P 500 moved higher, up 0.8%, snapping a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones was up by 0.7%.

Tech outperformed, with the Nasdaq 100 index up 1%. Small caps in the Russell 2000 gained 0.8%.

US Index Performance On Friday

Index	Performance (+/-)	Value
Nasdaq 100	+0.96%	15,507.72
S&P 500 Index	+0.78%	4,537.89
Dow Industrials	+0.72%	35,476.89
Russell 2000	+0.77%	1,976.40

Friday’s Trading In Major US Equity ETFs: In midday trading on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 0.9% higher to $452, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA rose 0.8% to $354 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ was 1.1% higher to $378, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Almost all U.S. equity sectors were positive, excluding defensive industries like the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund XLP and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU, which were a tad lower.

The top performer was the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY, up 3.3%, followed by the the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund XLC, up 1.1%.

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Stocks In Focus:

• Amazon climbed nearly 10%, on track for its best day of the year, while Apple fell over 3%.
• Among other earnings-induced movers are Atlassian Corporation TEAM, (up 19%), Booking Holdings Inc. BKNG (up 9%), Cloudflare, Inc. NET (up about 11%) and Universal Display Corporation OLED, up 15%.
• Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. TDS rocketed 77% after the board announced a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives for UScellular.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil rose 1.5%, with a barrel of WTI-grade crude trading at $82.80. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO was 1.5% higher to $74.  

Treasury yields fell, with the 10-year yield down by 12 basis points to 4.07% and the two-year yield down by 8 basis points to 4.81%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT rose 1.7% for the day. 

The dollar fell, with the U.S. dollar index, which is tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP, down 0.7%. The EUR/USD pair, which is tracked by the Invesco CurrecyShares Euro Currency Trust FXE, was 0.8% higher to 1.1036.

European equity indexes closed in the green. The SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 Etf  FEZ rose 1.6%. 

Gold rose 0.4% to $1,942/oz. The SPDR Gold Trust GLD was 0.4% higher to $180. Silver rose 0.3% to $23.60, with the iShares Silver Trust SLV up 0.3% to $21.70. Bitcoin BTC/USD was 0.2% higher to $29,238.

Staff writer Piero Cingari updated this report midday Friday. 

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