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Wall St jumps as inflation worries wane on wage data

| Updated: March 14, 2018 09:49:12


US stocks jump after wage data

Wall Street jumped sharply on Friday, after strong job additions in February but sluggish wage growth that pointed to a gradual rise in inflation and helped temper expectations of faster rate increases.

The three major US indexes rose 1.0 per cent, with the Nasdaq touching a record high, reports Reuters.

Strong jobs data last month fuelled speculation that higher wages could lead to faster interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve, rattling global equities market.

At 12:42 am ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 327.75 points, or 1.32 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 34.78 points, or 1.27 per cent.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 98.82 points, or 1.33 per cent, at 7,526.76. The index touched record high of 7,531.47.

While the Dow is up 8.0 per cent from the February lows, it remains about 5.0 per cent off record highs seen in January.

The S&P is about 3.0 per cent off its January record highs but up more than 9.0 per cent from last month’s lows.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped by 313,000 jobs last month, the Labour Department said, its biggest increase in more than 1-1/2 years.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,048 to 796. On the Nasdaq, 2,042 issues rose and 825 fell.

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