S&P 500 Racks Up Gains as Signs of Softer Labor Demand Boost Fed Pivot Hopes

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 rallied Tuesday, as data pointing to slowing labor demand added to expectations that the Federal Reserve may ease the pace of monetary policy tightening.

The S&P 500 rose 2.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.4%, or 704 points, and the Nasdaq was up 2.9%.

Job openings fell to the lowest since June last year, and were “very broad-based and spanned most industries and all business sizes,” Jefferies said in a note.

If the slowdown in labor demand continues and core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, “falls as much as we expect the Fed will not be hiking by 125bp by the year end,” Pantheon Macroeconomics said Tuesday.

Treasury yields continued their retreat in the wake of bets of a less hawkish Fed, helping growth sectors of the economy including tech to build on Monday’s gain.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were all in the green rising more than 2%. 

Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), meanwhile, jumped more than 12% as Elon Musk is reportedly set to end his legal battle with the social media giant and proceed to acquire the firm at the previously agreed $54.20 per share.

The u-turn from Musk is “a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning [against] Twitter board was highly unlikely,” Wedbush said in a note.

Energy stocks were the biggest sector outperformer as oil prices climbed 3% a day ahead of an OPEC+ meeting Wednesday that is expected to culminate in a decision to curb oil production.

Hess (NYSE:HES), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) were among the biggest gainers, each up more than 5%.

In other news, Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) jumped 13% after the electric pickup truck maker said it remained on track to produce 25,000 vehicles in 2022.

Other automakers were also in the ascendency as General Motors (NYSE:GM) rose more than 8%, while Ford Motor (NYSE:F) was up 6% after reporting a 16% jump in third-quarter sales.