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Stellar Jobs Report Drives Stocks and Oil Higher

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US stocks are making a push back to record territory following a very upbeat non-farm payroll report.  Throughout the recent wrath of global growth concerns, the US labor market for the most part has been extremely robust.  The February slowdown appears to be a one-off event as the March report showed 196,000 jobs were added, higher than the economists expected increase of 177,000 jobs.  Wages remained strong at 3.2%, but down from the recent pace of 3.4% seen in February.

The impressive jobs report should alleviate recession concerns. While the President is making calls for the US to cut interest rates and to take further measures to stimulate the economy, today’s report should confirm the Fed’s patience and market participants may think it is unlikely that they will reconsider any changes in policy until after seeing second quarter data.

The S&P 500 index continues is now positive for a seventh consecutive day, the best streak in a couple of years.

Oil prices are also extending gains as a plethora of risk positive news keeps hitting the markets.  The US economy’s labor market is very strong, optimism is high for China and US to reach a trade deal and OPEC + production has now fallen for a fourth consecutive month.  Venezuela’s collapsing production due to electrical outages has also provided a nice backdrop for higher oil prices.

Brent took some time, but it finally cleared the $70 a barrel level, and if we don’t see US production reassert itself next week, we could see momentum traders try to keep the longest run of weekly gains since November 2017 going.

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.
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