FX.co ★ Wall Street stocks hit highs ahead of US jobs report

On Thursday, the dynamics of stocks were mixed as a drop in tech stocks offset a rise in economically vulnerable companies ahead of Friday's important jobs report. Against this background, the US dollar fell.

Traders were also affected by comments by Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic who said "we're going to let the economy continue to run until we see signs of inflation", before stepping in on rates. Besides, investors were awaiting monthly employment data. According to the forecast, 725,000 jobs were added in August. Against this backdrop, the S&P 500 index rose by 0.1%. Stocks of commodity and industrial goods advanced as well.

Treasury yields have remained largely unchanged since Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank could start tapering its bond-buying program as early as this year. However, the Fed's further monetary policy still depends on jobs data. Thus, market participants are awaiting the next meeting of the officials to be held this month, when they are expected to announce fresh forecasts for the interest rate. With the labor market now playing a decisive role in politics, Friday's report is considered to be very important for these forecasts.

"Most market watchers aren't expecting the U.S central bank to announce its taper plans until its November meeting at the earliest, a full three non-farm payroll (NFP) reports from now," Matt Weller, global head of research at Forex.com and City Index, wrote in a note to clients. "Nonetheless, traders will still key in on Friday's big jobs report to see if the labor market is recovering as expected," he added.

According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., investors' concerns about economic growth are overdone, opening the way for potential gains in cyclical assets in the near future. While economically sensitive sectors dominated the leaderboard for the first half of 2021, they have lagged in recent months as the delta coronavirus variant prompted concerns about the pace of the recovery.

"The market is worrying too much about global cyclical risks from Delta outbreaks and China's slowdown, and our Fed forecast is still more dovish than the market's. So we think some further relief in cyclical assets -- higher equities and higher bond yields -- is likely over the near term," Goldman strategists led by Zach Pandl said in a note.

Today's key events:

- US jobs report;

- labor productivity in Canada;

- The ISM Non-Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index in the United States for August.