NEW YORK, March 6 — Wall Street and a gauge of global equity markets rose yesterday as investors cheered signs of economic strength in a report that showed faster-than-expected US jobs growth, data that initially stoked inflation concerns.

The session was marked by frantic trading across the globe. Asian markets dropped overnight. MSCI’s all-country index was on its longest losing streak in six months before clawing back.

All Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher, bouncing back from early losses. Investors were spooked this week by rising interest rates, which offset optimism about an economic rebound.

Microsoft rallied 2.2 per cent, the biggest boost for the S&P 500.

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“The market is consolidating itself around what is likely to be some pretty healthy robust economic growth and inflation-related readings out of the economy for the balance of 2021,” said Jeff MacDonald, Head of Fixed-Income Strategies, Fiduciary Trust International in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 572.16 points, or 1.85 per cent, to 31,496.3, the S&P 500 gained 73.47 points, or 1.95 per cent, to 3,841.94 and the Nasdaq Composite added 196.68 points, or 1.55 per cent, to 12,920.15.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.78 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.63 per cent.

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Emerging market stocks lost 0.52 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.8 per cent lower, while Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.23 per cent.

The US economy created more jobs than expected in February as new Covid-19 cases fell and additional pandemic relief money boosted hiring at restaurants, putting the labour market recovery on firmer footing.

Still, it will probably take several years for the economy to heal from deep scars inflicted by the pandemic, now in its second year.

The market remained volatile as it was on Thursday when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell showed little alarm about a rise in bond yields.

Top Federal Reserve officials backed that message. “(W)e are not seeing much movement in real yields” but rather an increase in what bond investors are demanding, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari noted.

Treasury yields pulled back from session highs as buyers stepped in after the benchmark 10-year note yield hit its highest in over a year following the payrolls report.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was up 2 basis points to 1.570 per cent. The yield climbed as high as 1.625 per cent, its highest since Feb 13, 2020.

Rising Treasury yields fed demand for the dollar. The dollar index jumped as high as 92.201, the highest since November 25, before retracing back to 91.965, up 0.36 per cent on the day.

The euro down 0.43 per cent to US$1.1915 (RM4.85). The Japanese yen weakened 0.39 per cent versus the greenback, last at 108.37 per dollar, its lowest since June.

The strong dollar sank gold prices to a nine-month low as investors sold the precious metal to reduce the opportunity cost of holding the non-yielding asset.

Spot gold added 0.1 per cent to US$1,698.93 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.22 per cent to US$1,696.50 an ounce. Earlier, spot gold was at US$1,697 per ounce, dipping below US$1,700 for the first time since June 2020.

Oil prices jumped after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies agreed to mostly maintain supply cuts in April.

US crude recently rose 3.85 per cent to US$66.29 per barrel and Brent was at US$69.60, up 4.29 per cent on the day.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, said the decision by major producers to extend output cuts could threaten the recovery in some countries.

“The decision by Opec+ has saddened us. It is not good news for India, China, Japan, Korea and other consuming nations,” India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan told Reuters. — Reuters