Wall St gains after fresh jobs data, Treasury yields retreat

By Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan

(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Wednesday after fresh data pointed to a cooling labor market, while a pullback in U.S. Treasury yields from their multi-year highs also boosted investor sentiment.

Before coming off their highs, the 30-year Treasury yield crossed above 5% for the first time since August 2007, while the 10-year and five-year yields hit their highest since 2007.

“Investors are worried that yields will continue to rise … technical indicators point they could come down and push bond and equity prices higher, possibly allowing for an end of year rally,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Major growth stocks Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:), Nvidia (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:) gained between 1.5% and 4.4%.

Consumer discretionary stocks rose 1.4% and led gains among the major sectors, while energy shares took the worst hit and were down 3.0% as crude prices fell on demand concerns.

U.S. private employers added the fewest workers in more than 2-1/2 years in September. The ADP National Employment report showed private payrolls rose 89,000, much lower than the expected 153,000.

The latest data comes a day after U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose in August, with focus now shifting to the more comprehensive non-farm payrolls data due on Friday.

“The ADP report somewhat gave investors reason to be possibly optimistic about Friday’s payroll numbers,” Stovall added.

A final reading of S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for September came in at 50.2 versus a preliminary estimate of 50.1, while separate data showed the U.S. services sector slowed.

Traders put the chance of interest rates remaining unchanged in November and December at more than 81% and 64%, respectively, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

At 12:03 p.m. ET, the was up 75.25 points, or 0.23%, at 33,077.63, the S&P 500 was up 20.59 points, or 0.49%, at 4,250.04, and the was up 126.92 points, or 0.97%, at 13,186.38.

Investors were also eyeing the 4,200-point mark for the S&P 500 as the next level of support should recent selling pressure on equities continue.

Helen of Troy dropped 7.9% after the home and beauty products maker reported lower second-quarter sales and profit.

Rollins (NYSE:) was down 2.5% after Spruce Point Capital Management said it was short on the pest-control firm.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.15-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and 39 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 11 new highs and 313 new lows.