The New York Stock Exchange climbed on Friday in the wake of economic statistics that revived expectations of a forthcoming rate cut.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones index advanced 0.9% to 38,581.3 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained more than 0.9% to 16,143.8 points.

The morning's indicators proved much weaker than expected, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to introduce measures to support activity.

According to the Labor Department, the US economy generated just 175,000 non-farm jobs in April, well below market expectations, which had averaged around 250,000.000.

'This data should calm concerns about possible overheating inflation and the scenario of a possible Fed rate hike', emphasize Commerzbank's teams.

In another disappointing development, activity in the services sector plunged back into contraction in April, the first time this has happened since the end of 2022, according to the results of the monthly survey by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

After 15 consecutive months of growth, the ISM index measuring the evolution of the tertiary sector dipped to 49.4 last month, falling back below the 50-point threshold indicating a downturn in activity, compared with 51.4 in March.

Investors have deduced that these worrying statistics could prompt the Fed to cut interest rates sooner than expected, perhaps as early as September.

On the bond market, the yield on ten-year Treasuries fell sharply back to almost 4.48% after the publication of the employment figures, while the dollar weakened against the euro, the single currency rebounding above 1.0790.

The dollar was clearly weakened, falling by -0.4%, while the euro rose symmetrically towards $1.0765.

Equity markets - and especially the technology segment - were boosted by strong results from Apple, which last night reported record EPS for the three months to March.

The share - which at yesterday's close had fallen by 10% since the start of the year - gained nearly 7%, making it the second-biggest gainer on the Dow Jones index.

Betting against the Cupertino-based group as it is about to enter an AI-related 'supercycle' and launch a $110 billion share buyback program is not a good choice for investors at a time when Apple is preparing to return to growth", say analysts at Wedbush Securities.

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