The New York Stock Exchange is set to open slightly higher on Friday morning, buoyed by news of a slight slowdown in job creation, which reinforces hopes that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates in the autumn.

Half an hour before the opening, futures on the main indices were up by around 0.1%, suggesting a modest advance at the start of the session.

The publication earlier this morning of a monthly US employment report devoid of any unpleasant surprises was seen as a further argument in favor of further monetary easing.

The Labor Department announced that the US economy had created 206.000 non-farm jobs in June, a figure roughly in line with market expectations, which were targeting around 200,000 positions.

At the same time, the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 4.1%, where economists were expecting it to be at 4%.

In addition, figures for April and May were revised downwards to show 111,000 fewer jobs created than initially announced.

Investors believe that this apparent slowdown in the job market reinforces the scenario of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve as early as September.

Traders are now predicting a 71.8% probability of a Fed rate cut on September 18, compared with a 68.4% probability prior to the release of the jobs report.

On the markets, futures contracts on Wall Street indices and European stock markets remained on an upward trend following the release of these statistics, while bond yields continued to fall.

The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds thus lost more than five basis points, falling back below 4.30% and heading for three-month lows.

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