US stock closed at fresh record highs on Friday, the S&P 500 gained 1.07%, the Nasdaq was up 1.74% and the Dow Jones rose by 134 points, as strong results from megatech companies lifted investors' mood, despite a stronger-than-expected jobs report. Meta shares jumped 20.32% after the company announced its first dividend and posted its biggest quarterly sales rise in two years. Amazon jumped 7.87% after reporting a 14% rise in revenue. Nvidia was also higher (4.97%) while Apple cut losses (-0.54%) even though the company's sales in China disappointed. ExxonMobil lost 0.46% after reporting mixed results while Chevron shares gained 2.91% after the company raised its dividend by 8%. On the data front, the US economy added 353K jobs last month, nearly doubling the projected 180K while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% and wage growth unexpectedly accelerated.
Frankfurt's DAX 40 trimmed early gains but remained 0.3% higher on Friday, not far from a record high touched earlier this week, after investors scaled back expectations of imminent interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve following the release of a strong US jobs report. The US economy added more jobs than expected in January, with December's figures also revised higher, while wage growth unexpectedly accelerated, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged for a second consecutive period. Meanwhile, the tech sector was supported by the release of strong quarterly results from US tech giants Meta and Amazon. Among individual stocks, Mercedes-Benz shares rose by over 2% after the German automaker reported its preliminary annual free cash flow (FCF) of the industrial business above market expectations.
The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.46% to close at 2,730 while the Shenzhen Component tumbled 2.24% to 8,056 on Friday, hitting their lowest levels in about four years as economic uncertainties continued to weigh on investor sentiment. Earlier this week, official data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity contracted for the fourth straight month in January, while a private survey pointed to a third straight month of expansion in the sector. A series of stimulus measures from Beijing also failed to sustain a recovery in Chinese stocks amid pressure from Evergrande’s liquidation and fears of a wider US ban on Chinese entities. Growth stocks led the decline, with sharp losses from Contemporary Amperex (-2%), Wuxi Apptec (-10%), Zhongji Innolight (-1.1%), East Money Information (-1.9%) and iFLYTEK (-2.7%). The Shanghai and Shenzhen indexes lost 6.2% and 8.1%, respectively, this week.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped 1.47% to close at 7,699 on Friday, hitting new all-time highs and tracking a rebound on Wall Street overnight as investors shrugged off Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's indication that a March interest rate cut is unlikely. Investors also look ahead to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy decision next week for further direction on domestic rates. Technology stocks led the charge, with strong gains from Xero (2.7%), Wisetech Global (3.5%), Altium (4.5%), Car Group (1.5%) and Seek (4.3%). Other index heavyweights also advanced, including BHP Group (1.1%), CSL Ltd (1%), Macquarie Group (1.7%), Goodman Group (6.2%) and Northern Star Resources (4.1%). The benchmark index gained 1.91% this week for its second straight weekly advance.
The S&P/TSX Composite index declined by 0.16%, closing at 21,085 on Friday, reversing previous session gains as the energy and metals sector exerted pressure on the Toronto exchange. Plummeting oil prices, driven by rumours of a potential cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, alleviated supply concerns and pulled down oil-linked equities by an average of 2.19%, with Canadian Natural Resources leading the decline with a 3.38% drop. Additionally, expectations of early Fed interest rate cuts waned after the US economy added nearly double the expected jobs, resulting in increased US Treasury yields and a decline in bullion prices, affecting Barrick Gold shares, which fell by 2.58%. Meanwhile, Open Text's shares dropped over 1.81%, despite beating estimates in the ongoing earnings season, while Imperial Oil's report missed expectations bringing their shares down 0.88%. The TSX posted weekly gains of 0.29%.
