Washington (United States) (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange closed in the green on Friday, with poor US employment figures giving more reason for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to delay on rates.
Published on: 02/10/2026 - 22:34
The Dow Jones advanced 0.49%, the Nasdaq index gained 1.19% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.73%.
"It's a great classic (for the markets, editor's note): we should not focus on the primary meaning, but rather on the secondary meaning" of economic data, said Christopher Low, analyst at FHN Financial, to AFP.
Unemployment rose slightly last month in the United States, from 4.1% to 4.2%, and job creation was surprisingly low, at 29,000, almost three times less than expected.
“It's bad for the economy, but it could prevent the Fed from causing trouble, which is why the market has received this report rather well,” underlines Mr. Low.
The United States central bank must ensure that it steers the country toward full employment while seeking to keep inflation around 2%.
These two objectives generally require opposing actions: facilitating credit to restart the economy and with it employment, or on the contrary restricting financing conditions to calm price increases.
In September, it chose to initiate a monetary tightening, the first in three years, to moderate inflation.
But “the September employment report called into question the discourse on economic resilience,” notes Chris Osmond of Fifth Third Wealth Advisors.
The hypothesis of a status quo by the Federal Reserve in October is now favored by investors, before a possible increase at the following meeting, in December, according to the CME FedWatch monitoring tool.
US stocks benefited from this dynamic because an accommodative monetary environment is conducive to corporate profits.
On the debt market, however, the effect was much more temporary. After falling to 5.15%, the ten-year borrowing rate of the American government rose to 5.27% around 8:25 p.m. GMT.
“Concerns about the size of the deficit and the fact that inflation remains a concern are such” that yields do not fall so easily, believes Christopher Low.
The day before, the ten-year rose to 5.34%, a level not seen since 2002.
On the business side, electric vehicle specialist Tesla gained 4.65% to $370.59 after reporting car deliveries above expectations in the third quarter.
On the other hand, the clothing and sports equipment group Nike plunged after publishing quarterly results lower than expectations and those of last year. To bounce back, the company has planned "a new operating model" which should notably lead to job cuts, the extent of which has not been specified.
Its stock dropped 3.64% to $33.87. Over one year, the fall is dizzying, the stock having lost more than half of its value (-55%).
Hard drive specialists Seagate (-10.21%) and Western Digital (-10.22%) fell after an article from Japanese media Nikkei assuring that their competitor Toshiba was going to double its production and invest more than $380 million to increase its capacity in its factories in the Philippines.
© 2026 AFP
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