Major U.S. stock indices closed higher with the Dow Jones climbing 0.69%, the S&P 500 rising 0.41%, and the Nasdaq increasing 0.80%. Following the market closure, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced changes to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. NVIDIA (NVDA) has been added as a component, replacing Intel (INTC) in the chip sector. Another change in the index sees Sherwin-Williams Co. (SHW) replacing Dow Chemical (DOW). These adjustments will take effect before the U.S. market opens on November 8.
Post-announcement, NVIDIA's stock saw a 3% increase, while Intel's dropped by 1.77%. Year-to-date, NVIDIA has surged over 173%, whereas Intel has decreased by nearly 54%.
Amazon's stock rose by more than 6%, driven by strong growth in its cloud and advertising sectors. Meanwhile, founder Jeff Bezos filed to sell 16.4 million shares. In contrast, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell over 10%, marking its worst week historically as its auditing firm Ernst & Young resigned during the audit, raising concerns about potential suspension or delisting.
Chinese stocks showed mixed results, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 0.1%. Among them, XPeng rose 2.54%, Li Auto increased 0.2%, while Nio, NetEase, Baidu, and Alibaba saw drops ranging from 0.1% to 1.73%.
WTI crude oil for December delivery gained $0.23 to $69.49 per barrel, and Brent crude for January delivery rose $0.28 to $73.10 per barrel.
In labor market news, the U.S. Labor Department reported a weaker-than-expected jobs report for October, influenced by extreme weather and a Boeing strike, with only 12,000 new jobs added against an expectation of 113,000. Unemployment remained steady at 4.1%. Revised figures saw the September job numbers decreased from 254,000 to 223,000 and August from 159,000 to 78,000, cumulatively subtracting 112,000 jobs.
The weak job data increased market speculation about a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, with the likelihood of a 25 basis point cut on November 7 becoming more likely, and the probability of another cut in December rising above 80%.
