Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Source: CNBC
Stock futures soared in Sunday morning trading, with investors celebrating a strong recovery in US job growth last month amid the accelerated launch of vaccines.
Futures in the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 136 points. S&P 500 futures were up 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.2%.
The Department of Labor reported on Friday that non-farm payrolls increased by 916,000 in March, the highest since August 2020, while the unemployment rate fell to 6%. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected an increase of 675,000 and an unemployment rate of 6%.
“This reflects the lifting of restrictions, the increase in vaccinations and the momentum provided by the fiscal stimulus,” said Anu Gaggar, senior analyst for global investments at the Commonwealth Financial Network. “The acceleration of jobs and rising wages could put upward pressure on prices and test the Fed’s patience with a moderate monetary policy.”
Wall Street started April with a sharp rise. The S&P 500 jumped more than 1% to cross the 4,000 limit for the first time on Thursday, bringing its gains from 2021 to 7%.
Last week’s strength came after President Joe Biden presented his multi-trillion dollar infrastructure proposal, which focuses on rebuilding roads, bridges and airports, expanding broadband access and driving the use of electric vehicles and upgrading the country’s electricity grid. The plan will be financed in part by an increase in the corporate tax rate to 28%.
However, the plan faces opposition among Republicans, as the $ 2 trillion plan includes initiatives that, they say, go beyond traditional infrastructure issues.
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri asked the Biden government on Sunday to reduce the package to about $ 615 billion and focus on physical infrastructure, such as roads and airports.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said last week that Biden’s plan would not receive Republican support and promised to oppose the broader Democratic agenda.
On the front of the pandemic, the United States reported another daily record of new Covid vaccinations on Saturday, bringing the weekly average of new vaccines per day to more than 3 million.