Jobs Surge, Yields Fall, and Gold Rebounds: What It Means for Markets This Week

Jobs comeback

The U.S. economy generated 178,000 jobs in March, well above economists’ consensus expectations and rebounding from the previous month’s revised net loss of 133,000 jobs. The report—issued on Friday as the stock market closed for a holiday observance—also showed that the unemployment rate slipped to 4.3% from 4.4% the previous month

Yields reverse course

Yields of U.S. government bonds slipped, snapping a four-week string of increases that had lifted the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury to its highest level in more than eight months. The 10-year yield finished the week around 4.30%, down from 4.43% at the end of the previous week. Nevertheless, the yield remained well above a recent low of 3.96% on February 27.

Golden rebound

Gold prices recovered some of the ground they had lost in March, though they remained well below the precious metal’s record high of around $5,500 per ounce set in late January. On Friday, gold was trading around $4,700, up nearly 4% for the week.

Q1 earnings preview

With initial first-quarter earnings reports scheduled to begin coming out in mid-April, analysts are expecting that companies in the S&P 500 will report double-digit earnings growth for the sixth consecutive quarter. As of Thursday, analysts surveyed by FactSet were forecasting an average earnings growth rate of around 13.2%. Just a couple of weeks earlier, earnings were expected to rise just 12.5%.

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