US and Europe Stock Prices Rise Due to Positive US Labor Market Data and Potential Interest Rate Pause: Market Update

Stock prices in the US and Europe rose on Thursday as new US labor market data gave investors more confidence that the US Federal Reserve (FRS) will pause further interest rate hikes in its fight against inflation.

Concerns about a tighter monetary policy remained after European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said that inflation in the eurozone was still too high, so the ECB would continue to raise interest rates, but not as sharply.

278,000 new jobs were created in the US private sector in May, thus registering a faster increase than predicted, according to the information compiled by the company ADP. Analysts had predicted that the US private sector would add 170,000 jobs in May.

“While there have been solid signs of inflation progress, the economy remains very resilient, as does the labor market,” said OANDA Senior Market Analyst Craig Erlam.

Investors were also relieved that the US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to temporarily lift the federal debt ceiling, bringing the country closer to averting the threat of default five days ahead of a deadline set by the Treasury Department.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 33,062.36 on Thursday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 1.0% to 4,221.09, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.3% to 13,100.98 points.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 7,490.27 on Thursday, Frankfurt’s DAX rose 1.2% to 15,853.66, and Paris’ CAC 40 rose 0.6% to 7,137. 43 points.

WTI crude oil rose 3.0% to $70.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The price of “Brent” crude oil on the London Stock Exchange rose by 2.3% to 74.28 dollars per barrel.

On the Dutch stock exchange “Title Transfer Facility” (TTF), the price of natural gas fell by 13.96% to 23.10 euros per megawatt hour on Thursday.

The euro rose against the US dollar on Thursday from $1.0689 to $1.0762 per euro, the British pound rose from $1.2441 to $1.2525 per pound and the US dollar against the Japanese yen eased from 139.34 to 138.79 yen per dollar. The euro fell against the British pound from 85.92 to 85.90 pence per euro.