U.S. Stocks Rise After October Jobs Report

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose after October’s jobs report stoked expectations for a smaller interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve next month.

At 10:36 ET (14:36 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 535, or 1.7%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.8% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.7%.

The Labor Department's highly anticipated report said the nation’s unemployment rate inched up to 3.7% last month, compared with expectations of 3.6%. The economy added nonfarm payrolls by 261,000, better than the expected 200,000 after rising to 263,000 the month before that.

The Fed has been combating inflation by raising its benchmark rate 0.75 percentage points for four straight meetings, including on Wednesday. But it could start to ease off that pace if data supports the case that the economy is cooling.

One of its trickier jobs is to stop inflation in its tracks without tipping the economy into a recession, and the major job losses associated with that. 

Still, Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the Fed’s policy rate might ultimately exceed the central bank’s estimated target.

Shares of Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO), a cloud communications company, sank 33% and touched a new 52-week low after forecasting fourth quarter revenue that would be up from the same period last year but would be short of Wall Street estimates. It also withdrew a full-year estimate.

Sports betting site DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) stock fell 22% after its quarterly monthly unique visitors fell short of expectations, though it beat third quarter estimates and raised its outlook.

Oil jumped. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 4.7% to $92.38 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures was up 4% to $98.54 a barrel. Gold Futures rose 2.8% to $1677.