U.S. stocks moved forward to open the week on Monday, as investor sentiment rebounded from over the better-than-expected jobs report from Friday. Many believed the report will play a considerable role in leading to an interest rate hike.
An increasing number of experts called for a June rates hike following the report, which saw 295,000 new jobs created in February. This was far better than the expected 240,000, and also outpaced January’s figure of 257,000.
In the often-confusing culture of Wall Street, this report—hailed as good news everywhere else—led to fear and selling, as the Dow dropped 278 points on Friday in the wake of the report.
Elsewhere this week, it’ll be relatively quiet on the data side. Perhaps the big news of the week comes today across the Atlantic, where the European Central Bank will launch its bond buying program—expected to last the rest of this year and well into 2016.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, here are the starting numbers from Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 18,015.56 (+158.78)
NASDAQ: 4,942.96 (+15.59)
S&P 500: 2,081.10 (+9.84)
