U.S. Stocks Continue to Reach New Highs, Driven by Major Tech Stocks

Boosted by large-cap tech stocks, the Nasdaq Composite climbed to a new high. The U.S. non-farm payroll report revealed the economy added 227,000 jobs, surpassing expectations.

At the close of trading on December 6, the S&P 500 rose 0.25% to 6,090.27 points, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 0.81% to 19,859.77 points, driven by gains in Tesla, Meta Platforms, and Amazon. Both indices hit all-time intraday highs and closed at record levels. In contrast, the Dow Jones fell 0.28% to 44,642.52 points.

For the week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite marked their third consecutive weekly gains, rising 0.96% and 3.34%, respectively, while the Dow Jones lost 0.6%.

On the morning of December 9, the USD Index slipped further to 105.72 points, and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note dropped to 4.147%.

In the gold market, spot gold edged up to $2,632.53 per ounce, and gold futures gained 0.2% to settle at $2,654.50 per ounce.

The U.S. non-farm payrolls report for November showed robust job growth, though it did not signal major changes in labor market conditions, which are gradually slowing. This could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to continue reducing interest rates this month.

The report, released Friday morning, indicated that the U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in November, exceeding the forecast of 214,000 jobs and significantly outpacing the revised figure of 36,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%, matching market expectations.

In the oil market, Brent crude fell 1.35% to $71.12 per barrel by the close on December 6, while WTI crude dropped 1.61% to $67.20 per barrel. For the week, Brent declined over 2%, and WTI fell 1%.

Following their meeting, OPEC and its allies decided to postpone the start of oil production increases by three months to April 2025 and extended the current production cuts by another year, until the end of 2026.

Source: SFVN (Compiled)