World shares are mixed ahead of Friday's US jobs report
[June 06, 2025] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
TOKYO (AP) — World shares were mixed Friday ahead of an update on the
U.S. job market that will offer insights into how the economy is faring.
The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.4% while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was up 0.5%.
Germany's DAX lost 0.3% to 24,258.74, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged
0.1% lower, to 7,785.19. Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.2% higher to
8,825.82.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5% to 37,741.61, while
the Kospi in South Korea jumped 1.5% to 2,812.05.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.2% to 23,859.52 and the Shanghai Composite
index edged less than 0.1% higher, to 3,385.36.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.3% to 8,515.70.
India's Sensex gained 0.8% after the Reserve Bank cut its key interest
rate by a half a percentage point to 5.50%.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% for its first drop in four days.
After sprinting through May and rallying within a couple good days’
worth of gains of its all-time high, the index at the center of many
401(k) accounts has lost momentum.
The Dow dropped 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8%.
The U.S. Labor Department is due to report how many more jobs U.S.
employers created than destroyed during May. The expectation on Wall
Street is for a slowdown in hiring from April.
A resilient job market has been one of the linchpins that’s propped up
the U.S. economy, and the worry is that all the uncertainty created by
President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariffs could push businesses to
freeze their hiring.
A report on Thursday said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment
benefits last week than economists expected. The number remains
relatively low compared with history, but it still hit its highest level
in eight months.
The data came as Procter & Gamble, the giant behind such brands as
Pampers diapers and Cascade dish detergent, said it will cut up to 7,000
jobs over the next two years. Its stock fell 1.9%.
The day’s heaviest weight on the market was Tesla, which tumbled 14.3%.
It’s lost nearly 30% of its value so far this year as CEO Elon Musk’s
relationship with Trump sours amid a disagreement over the president’s
signature bill of tax cuts and spending. In after-hours trading Tesla
gained 0.8%.
[to top of second column] |
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's
Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, June 6, 2025, in Tokyo.
(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
 Hopes that Trump will lower his
tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries have been
among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied back so furiously
since dropping roughly 20% from its record two months ago. It’s now
back within 3.3% of its all-time high.
Trump boosted such hopes Thursday after saying he had “a very good
phone call” with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, about trade and that
“their respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be
determined.”
China's assessment of the call, as reported in state media, was less
enthusiastic.
Still, it's an easing of tensions after the world’s two largest
economies had earlier accused each other of violating the agreement
that had paused their stiff tariffs against each other, which
threatened to drag the economy into a recession.
Markets took the latest signs of detente with Beijing coolly, given
that nothing is assured in Trump’s on-and-off rollout of tariffs.
Among Wall Street’s winners was MongoDB, which jumped 12.8% after
the database company likewise delivered a stronger profit than
analysts expected.
Circle Internet Group, the U.S.-based issuer of one of the most
popular cryptocurrencies, surged 168.5% in its first day of trading
on the New York Stock Exchange.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.38%, up from
4.37% late Wednesday after tumbling from 4.46% the day before.
Yields dropped so sharply on Wednesday as expectations built that
the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates later this year
to prop up an economy potentially weakened by tariffs.
In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 34
cents to $63.03 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard,
fell 28 cents to $65.06 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 143.90 Japanese yen from 143.49 yen. The
euro fell to $1.1424 from $1.1448.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
