S&P 500 clocks bets day since November 2022 on US jobless data, Asia tracks Wall Street higher

Stocks had a massive selloff last week as July U.S. jobs report triggered worries of a potential US recession.

Wall Street saw a robust rebound as latest US jobs data eased worries over slowdown, sending S&P 500 higher to its best day since November 2022.

The S&P 500 ended 2.3% higher, Nasdaq 100 rose by 3.1% and the Russell 2000 index of smallcap stocks rose by 2.4%. Data captured US initial jobless claims falling the most in nearly a year. "This was the data point for the week, so it took on added importance," Paul Nolte, senior wealth advisor and market strategist for Murphy & Sylvest told Reuters.

Asian stock markets are higher on Friday, tracking cues of resilience in US stocks. The yen has weakened slightly against US dollar on Friday, registering its fourth day of depreciation.

10-year US treasury yields rose four basis points to 3.99%, and so did cryptocurrencies as with investors flocked to riskier assets. The CBOE Volatility index - an important fear gauge - ended lower on Thursday.

Crude oil futures clocked their third day of gains as rising risks in the Middle East offset worries of a slow global demand.

Nvidia drove the largecaps shares, with Eli Lilly rising 9.5% on strong outlook and sales of weight-loss drugs.

“It has been quite a week. Up, down, and all around. We learned how sensitive markets now are to cooler US economic data, how broad reaching the impact of the yen carry trade can be, and how conditioned investors are to expect interest rate cuts as the salve for every scrape,” Liz Young Thomas of Social Finance Inc told Bloomberg.

Stocks had a massive selloff last week as July U.S. jobs report triggered worries of a potential US recession.

The unwinding of carry trade positions - borrowing money from economies with low interest rates to fund higher-yielding assets - had weighed on tech-heavy markets across the world earlier this week.

“We are rallying today because of jobless claims. That’s unusual. If you get some downside surprises in the data next week, guess what happens? It will just fuel chatter back into the notion that the Fed is a bit behind the curve,” Neil Dutta of Renaissance Macro Research told Bloomberg.