Market Begins New Quarter in Positive Territory

On Thursday, the stock market wrapped up its first losing quarter in two years. On Friday, it kicked off a new quarter, and things went in a better direction. The Dow rose 139 points 34,818, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 15 points to 4,545, and the Nasdaq rose 40 points to 14,261. As CNBC notes, investors were still assessing a new jobs report that came in slightly weaker than expected but still showed resilient US hiring. “This was a solid report,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Allspring Global Investments, per the AP. “You can see the worries about COVID fading. Fewer people are working remotely. Fewer people are saying they can’t work due to the pandemic.”

The AP notes the bond market was particularly active again on Friday, with the yield on the two-year Treasury near its highest point in more than three years. (Related to that is a classic warning sign of a potential recession, which is now flashing.) How the Wall Street Journal sums up the sentiment: "The movement in interest rates, and the nervousness that it may indicate a coming recession, is spooking some investors, even as employment numbers look solid, according to traders." (More stock market stories.)