Bonds & Stocks
Stocks rose on Monday with traders awaiting labor-market data this week that could reinforce bets about the Federal Reserve’s path of interest-rate cuts. The S&P 500 climbed 0.4%, extending this month’s rally. Gold hit a record, lifting the US Treasury’s holdings of the metal past $1 trillion. The Bloomberg dollar index dropped for a second consecutive session. Treasury yields fell across the curve, with the 10-year rate around 4.16%.
Economy
The “low-hire, low-fire” US labor market is leaving millions on the outside looking in. It’s not just recent college graduates who are struggling to find entry-level positions. Out-of-work mid-career employees are taking part-time jobs, and hiring has stalled in industries from professional services to manufacturing. More than a quarter of the jobless have been out of work more than a half-year – the highest share since the mid-2010s excluding the pandemic-era years.
World
Global money managers are venturing back into China after years of aversion, piqued by a world-beating stock rally and the country’s advances in high-tech industries. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said global hedge funds were last month the most active in onshore equities in recent years – a stark contrast to 2021, when some clients had deemed the market “uninvestable.”