Stocks rise after Fed's job report casts doubt on rate hikes

The Fed's jobs report has cast doubt on whether the Federal ReserveFederal Reserve will be able to shift away from interest-rate increases anytime soon, and U.S. stocks went up early Monday morning after finishing close to flat Friday.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite have gone up three weeks in a row, chipping away at a large portion of their losses from the rest of the year. The S&P 500 dropped 6.75 points, or 0.2%, to 4,145. The biggest loss of the company was made on Friday, making up most of its losses from early in the trading day. It went up by 0.4% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 76.65 points, or 0.2%, to 32,803. 47 fell by 0.1% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite declined by 63.03 points, or 0.5%, to 12,657. The week, 55 and 2.2%, went up for the week.

There were signs of cooling activity across the economy, and investors had come to believe that the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as early as the first half of 2023. That would have been a problem for markets, as the Fed has raised interest rates to combat stubbornly high inflation this year.

Friday's data showed that the labor market was not doing anything but cooling. In July, the labor market added 528,000 jobs - more than doubling what analysts had estimated and returning payrolls to pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, near historic lows.

That left investors with a mixed picture: A key pillar of the economy remains strong, which should be good news for markets. It raises questions about whether stocks can continue their recent comeback. Markets have been rattled by Russia's war on Ukraine, which caused a spike in prices of oil, wheat and other commodities, and uncertainty about Chinese anti-viruses curbs that have disrupted manufacturing and shipping.

Higher interest rates are meant to dampen the inflation by cooling business activity, but that also raises the risk of recession and job losses. The inflation spike is unusual because forecasters blame shortages of goods due to the coronaviruses, rather than rapid economic growth.

Asian stocks were mixed on Monday after strong U.S. jobs data cleared the way for more interest rate hikes and Chinese exports rose by double digits.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 3,233. China's July exports beat forecasts on 07 after China's July exports beat forecasts. In July, exports increased 18% compared with a year earlier, while imports rose just 2.3%, reflecting weak global demand, Chinese customs data showed Sunday. The country's trade surplus swelled to a record $101 billion.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.8% to 20,040. 21 was gained by the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo, a gain of 0.2% to 26.230. The Kospi in Seoul increased by less than 0.1% to 2,491. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 and 91 shed less than 0.1% to 7,009. India's Sensex opened up 0.4% at 58,613.