New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange, which briefly hesitated to open on Friday after the very disappointing US jobs report, was trading in the green as these mediocre numbers cast off the specter of inflation and a rate hike. interest.

Around 2:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones index climbed 0.40% after a record the day before.

The Nasdaq accelerated 1.14% and the S&P 500 advanced 0.44%.

On Wall Street Thursday, the index of flagship stocks Dow Jones had advanced 0.93% to 34,548.53 points.

The technology-intensive Nasdaq finished at 13,632.84 points, up 0.37%.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.82% to 4,201.62 points.

The economy of the United States created only 266,000 jobs in April, far from the million expected by analysts, according to the Department of Labor.

The unemployment rate rose by a tenth of a percentage point to 6.1% when analysts saw it decline to 5.8%.

Forecasters wondered, "This is a really bizarre report, there's no doubt about it. Let's wait until next month," JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist for TD Ameritrade, told AFP.

"It is very difficult for analysts to appreciate such a figure because the states are all reopening at very different rates," he said.

For now, these mediocre job gains in April compared to expectations were seen by investors as a sign that "the economic recovery is not as bright as expected which tempers the possibilities of overheating" and therefore a rise in interest or a change of course in the monetary policy of the US Central Bank (Fed), stressed Mr. Kinahan.

Interest rates close to zero, as they have been since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States a little over a year ago, favor Wall Street investors who find more profits in stocks than bonds.

Bond rates on 10-year Treasury bills tumbled to 1.5276% from 1.5696 the day before.

© 2021 AFP