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Wall Street recovered to rally mode on Friday as investors welcomed better-than-expected jobs data indicating the world’s largest economy remains robust as inflation falls and interest rates remain elevated. The rally on Friday was not enough to overcome a losing week across the key indices for Wall St though with the Dow Jones rising 0.8% on Friday but sliding 2.27% for the week, the S&P500 gained 1.11% on Friday but fell 0.95% over the week and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.24% on Friday but ended the week down 0.8%. The US Labour Departments’ jobs report out of Friday showed jobs growth of 303,000 in March which beat economists’ expectations of 200,000. Wages also rose 0.3% for the month and 4.1% from a year ago which were in-line with estimates.
Over in Europe, markets closed lower on the holiday-shortened trading week as investors digested key economic data. The STOXX600 fell 0.84%, Germany’s DAX lost 1.24%, the French CAC fell 1.11% and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended Friday’s session down 0.84%. House prices fell 1% month-on-month in March which were below economists’ expectations of a 0.1% rise in a sign the housing market is crippling under the high interest rate pressure.
Across the Asia markets on Friday, markets closed mixed as South Korea’s Kospi index soared 1.29%, while Japan’s Nikkei ended the day flat, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended the day down 0.18%.
Locally on Friday, the ASX200 posted its third loss over the shortened-trading week, ending the session down 0.6% as local investors were spooked by comments out of the Fed indicating rate cuts may not happen this year if inflation remains sticky.
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