U.S. Dollar Stocks Rises, Stocks Remain Lower After Jobs Report

By Christopher Whittall and Josie Cox 

        The U.S. dollar rose against both the euro and the yen on Friday and global stocks remained broadly lower after a much-anticipated U.S. jobs report was in line with expectations.
        Immediately after the release, the U.S. dollar was trading 0.4% higher against the euro and around 0.2% higher against Japan's yen, having earlier in the session traded little changed on the day.
        The U.S. created 215,000 new jobs in July, the Labor Department said.
        "This is just makes it more likely that the [Federal Reserve] will move to raise rates in September," said David Vickers, a senior portfolio manager at Russell Investments in London. "The big risk for this release was that we would get a very low number, so there's certainly some relief that that did not materialize," he said.
        Futures contracts showed the S&P 500 opening 0.2% lower, largely unchanged from before the announcement. Changes in futures, however, don't necessarily accurately reflect moves after the opening well.
        In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.4%, also little changed from earlier in the day. Several eurozone countries released disappointing industrial and export data Friday.
        In Germany, Europe's largest economy, industrial production in June fell 1.4% from the previous month, while exports were down 1.0%. Industrial production also fell in Italy and France.
        Germany's DAX index was down 0.4% by midafternoon in Europe. France's CAC 40 index also dropped 0.4% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index lost 0.3%.
        "The economic backdrop in Europe is improving, but it's a slow and sluggish improvement," said Mark Hargraves, a fund manager at Axa Investment Managers, which oversees EUR689 billion ($751.61 billion) in assets.
        "Europe has had a good start to the year. This is a reminder we shouldn't get carried away," he said.
        Greece bucked the trend Friday, with the country's main stock exchange trading up 1.7% at the end of a week of heavy losses, having reopened after a five-week hiatus.
        In commodities, Brent crude oil fell 0.8% to $49.15 a barrel. Gold was 0.7% lower at $1,082.40 a troy ounce.
        Write to Christopher Whittall at christopher.whittall@wsj.com and Josie Cox at josie.cox@wsj.com
        Corrections & Amplifications
        The creation of more than 200,000 jobs in July, if repeated in August, would provide the Fed with the justification to raise rates in September, said Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche AG. An earlier version of this article didn't include attribution for the statement. Also, a subheadline on an earlier version of the story misstated that 200,000 jobs created in August would give the Fed justification to raise rates in September and didn't attribute the statement.
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        August 07, 2015 08:59 ET (12:59 GMT)

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