Stock market today: Wall Street rises toward records as it prepares for Friday's jobs report
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U.S. stocks are rising Thursday and climbing back toward record heights, as Wall Street makes its final moves ahead of a jobs report that could shake the market on Friday. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% in early trading and sitting just below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 250 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher. Conagra Brands climbed 4.1% after the company behind such food brands as Birds Eye and Duncan Hines reported a milder drop in revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Levi Strauss jumped 16.3% after its latest quarterly results likewise topped expectations. One of the big reasons the U.S. stock market stormed more than 20% higher from November through March was the expectation that the Fed would cut its main interest rate several times. But Fed officials have said they need to see additional proof inflation is heading down toward its 2% target before acting, a message Chair Jerome Powell reiterated. Wall Street is looking for the job market to cool enough to remove upward pressure on inflation, but not so much that it throws too many people out of work and causes a recession. Treasury yields were holding relatively steady in the bond market and gave up earlier gains following the release of the jobless claims report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.32% from 4.35% late Wednesday. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising in much of Asia.



https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-inflation-c044d61408190a1a283ecbe3959272c1