A key jobs report will be at the center of market action in the coming week as Wall Street stocks posted their fourth straight weekly gain in the penultimate trading week of the month.
Concerns over the Greek fiscal crisis kept the market gripped the past week when European leaders set aside weeks of bickering and agreed on a joint plan with the IMF to tackle the country's mountain of debt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1 percent over the week to finish Friday at 10,850.36, its highest weekly finish in 18 months.
The broader S&P 500 index was up 0.6 percent to 1,166.59, while the tech-rich NASDAQ composite gained 0.9 percent to 2,395.13, its highest weekly close in 19 months.
Among the US economic indicators expected the coming week is the nonfarm payroll employment report on Friday, which many analysts expect to be positive even as unemployment remained a key impediment to economic recovery.
Most analysts forecast the nonfarm payroll to add 200,000 jobs this month — compared with 36,000 job losses last month — partly due to temporary hiring for the US Census Bureau to conduct a massive census exercise.
Despite the expected job additions, analysts expect the unemployment rate to remain at 9.7 percent this month.
"After a downturn of breathtaking severity, the labor market is on the verge of growth once again," said Aaron Smith, a senior economist for Moody's Economy.com., in anticipation of the Census hirings.
"The employment report ... should be positive" for the market, Wells Fargo Advisors chief market strategist Al Goldman said.
Goldman said the Dow index could find support at 10,800 to 10,700 and the S&P 500 at 1,160 to 1,150 levels.
"The good news remains a recovering economy, low interest rates and little inflation," he said.
However, some analysts believe the market may face some consolidation after massive gains.
"The market has enjoyed a nice 10 percent rally coming off the February lows and appears ripe for some modest profit taking," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co.
"We do not see a near-term pullback extending much more than two to three percent as investors with cash appear anxious to pounce on even small rallies," he said.
Analysts at IHS Global Insight said aside from improving job numbers, consumer confidence, a key barometer for the economy, also showed improvement prospects.
"Preliminary signs of an upturn in labor markets, along with further gains in stock prices, will be the main drivers of an expected strong bounce back from what looks like a rogue downshift in February," IHS economists Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault said in a report.
"Consumers are also reporting some improvement in personal finances. Reports of rising light vehicle sales in March are another indication that the consumer markets recovery is gaining momentum," they said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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