Wall Street drifts closer to its record ahead of Friday’s jobs report
NEW YORK AP U S stocks are drifting closer to their records after President Donald Trump raised hopes for a cooldown in his global transaction war on Thursday The S P was higher in midday trading The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up points or as of a m Eastern time and the Nasdaq composite was higher Stocks had been flip-flopping in the morning but turned modestly higher after Trump announced he had a very good phone call with China s leader Xi Jinping about exchange and that their respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined It signals an easing of tensions between the world s two largest economies Both sides had earlier accused the other of violating the agreement that had paused the stiff tariffs each had put on the other which threatened to drag the market into a recession Hopes that Trump would lower his tariffs after reaching pact deals with China and other countries have been among the main reasons the S P has rallied back so furiously since dropping roughly below its record two months ago It s now back within of its all-time high To be sure nothing is assured amid Trump s on-and-off rollout of tariffs and markets took the latest detente with China relatively coolly Trading activity in options markets suggests investors believe the next big move for the S P could come on Friday when the U S Labor Department will say how several more jobs U S employers created than destroyed during May The expectation on Wall Street is for a slowdown in hiring from April A resilient job realm has been one of the linchpins that s propped up the U S commercial sector and the worry is that all the uncertainty created by tariffs could cause businesses to freeze their hiring A description on Thursday commented more U S workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected The number remains relatively low compared with history but it still hit its highest level in eight months The information came as Procter Gamble the giant behind such brands as Pampers diapers and Cascade dish detergent commented it will cut up to jobs over the next two years Its stock fell On Wall Street Five Below rallied after the retailer which sells products priced between and informed a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected CEO Winnie Park credited broad-based strength across the bulk of its merchandise MongoDB jumped after the database company likewise delivered a stronger profit than analysts expected On the losing side of Wall Street was Brown-Forman the company behind Jack Daniel s and Woodford Reserve Its stock fell and was potentially heading for its worst day since it began trading in Brown-Forman s profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of Wall Street s expectations and the company explained it expects its upcoming fiscal year to be challenging because of consumer uncertainty the possible impact from as of now unknown tariffs and other things The CEO of PVH which runs the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands likewise cited challenges from an increasingly uncertain consumer and macroeconomic backdrop Its stock fell even though it stated stronger revenue and profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected The company cut its profit forecast for its full fiscal year saying it will likely be able to offset only chosen of the expected hit it will take because of tariffs Expectations are building in financial markets that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates later this year in order to prop up an market potentially weakened by tariffs Yields took a sharp turn lower on Wednesday after a pair of worse-than-expected reports on the U S economic system bolstered traders bets for a cut The Fed has been keeping interest rates on hold this year after slashing them through the end of Part of the reason for the pause is that the Fed wants to see how much Trump s tariffs will hurt the business sector and raise inflation While lower interest rates could boost the financial system they also tend to give inflation more fuel Treasury yields held steadier on Thursday ahead of Friday s jobs analysis The yield on the -year Treasury rose to from late Wednesday after tumbling from the day before It had been lower before Trump s encouraging description of his call with Xi In stock markets abroad indexes in Europe were mixed amid modest moves after the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate again as was widely expected The moves were larger in Asia where South Korea s Kospi jumped after the country s new president and leading liberal politician Lee Jae-myung began his term vowing to restart talks with North Korea and beef up a partnership with the U S and Japan AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed Source
