Roundup: U.S. equities post weekly gains amid rate-cut speculations

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NEW YORK, July 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. equities extended gains in the holiday-shortened week as Wall Street speculated on possible interest rate cut moves from the Federal Reserve, driven by a slew of mixed data.

For the week, the Dow increased 1.21 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 1.65 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.94 percent.

The U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for Independent Day during the abbreviated week. Stocks were started out strong as traders were relieved that the world's two largest economies would resume trade talks. However, Wall Street finished the week on a downbeat note despite the release of stronger-than-expected jobs report.

U.S. employers added 224,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Job gains mainly occurred in professional and business services, health care, transportation and warehousing, the bureau said.

June's total nonfarm payroll employment is markedly higher than May's downwardly revised number of 72,000, and is higher than economists' forecast of 165,000 surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

The data came as investors are pricing high on more easing monetary policy by the U.S. central bank in order to spur growth.

The better-than-anticipated employment report may cloud the hopes, experts noted.

Strong job growth in June reduces rate-cut odds, Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, said in a note on Friday.

"Because the Fed defined the need for rate cuts in terms of slowing growth rather than low inflation, a cut at the end of this month seems unlikely unless there is significant weakness in consumer indicators," he added.

Before the jobs release, investors were pricing in a near-certain reduction of rates, with the market placing a 25 percent probability that the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 50 basis points, rather than its typical 25, later this month.

After the release, the probability of a 50 basis point cut fell to 4.9 percent, though expectations for a cut of at least a quarter-point remained at 100 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool late Friday.

Despite the robust employment report, there were other economic data released earlier this week that provided evidence for easier Federal Reserve monetary policy.

U.S. non-manufacturing index registered 55.1 percent in June, lower than the May reading of 56.9 percent, according to a report by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

While indicating continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector, the rate marked the index's lowest reading since July 2017, showed the report.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) registered 51.7 percent in June, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the May reading of 52.1 percent. The rate marked the slowest pace since October 2016.

During its June monetary policy meeting, the Fed left the interest rates unchanged and stated that it "will closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion."

Wall Street was also worried about a potential U.S.-EU trade dispute. The U.S. government on Monday proposed punitive tariffs on additional 4 billion U.S. dollars of EU goods amid their dispute over aircraft subsidies.

Traders grew concerned that the potential new levies would further dent economic outlook and impact corporate earnings, experts noted. Enditem

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