Friday's American labor market statistics strengthened the stock speculators' hopes that the central bank, the Federal Reserve, will lower the interest rate at its next meeting in two weeks. The figures showed that more jobs than expected were created in the USA last month, but on the other hand, unemployment increased slightly, from 4.1 to 4.2 percent.
This report reinforces the joy ahead of the coming weekends. The Fed is heading for a cut in December, says Lindsay Rosner, department head at the giant bank Goldman Sachs.
The broad S&P 500 index, which is heading for its best year since the IT bubble in 2000, rose 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial index fell by the same amount, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index lifted 0.8 percent.
Over the entire past week, the S&P 500 rose 1.0 percent and Nasdaq 3.3 percent, while the Dow Jones fell 0.6 percent.
