New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange reacted weakly on Friday, opening in scattered order, to strong July figures for US employment which saw the unemployment rate fall from 5.9% to 5.4%.

Shortly before 2:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones index advanced 0.44%, the Nasdaq lost 0.20% and the S&P 500 gleaned 0.23%.

"The performance of equities is almost flat at the start of the session as investors sift through the optimistic July employment report," Schwab analysts noted.

The day before, the Nasdaq, predominantly technological, and the S&P 500 had reached records at 14,895.12 points (+ 0.78%) and 4,429.10 points (+ 0.60%).

The Dow Jones index had advanced 0.78% to 35,064.25 points.

According to the report of the Ministry of Labor released before the market opened, the unemployment rate fell from 5.9% to 5.4%, to the surprise of analysts who expected 5.6%.

Last month, the US economy created 943,000 jobs, more than expected, and hires for June were revised up to 938,000, as well as those for May.

Most of these job creations took place in services, with only 27,000 in the manufacturing industry.

The hospitality and restaurant sectors have hired heavily (380,000), reflecting the rebalancing of the economy.

But the numbers are still 10% lower compared to the period before the pandemic.

Up for the third month in a row, the average hourly wage rose 11 cents.

The rather lukewarm reaction of Wall Street was explained, according to Art Hogan of National Securities, because "we are at record levels, it tempers the reaction".

These figures "are very good news, the one we needed," said the analyst adding that on an average of three months, 831,000 new monthly jobs were created against 559,000 on average a month earlier.

"This is clearly a step in the right direction" towards a recovery in the labor market but also towards confirmation that the Central Bank (Fed) could announce its program to reduce asset purchases in September, Hogan told the AFP.

The dollar rose against major currencies after the positive numbers and interest rates on 10-year Treasuries climbed 1.28% from 1.22%.

Travel site Expedia lost 8.76% after reporting good results but uncertain prospects due to loss of travel confidence due to the Delta variant.

The volatile stock of online broker Robinhood was on the rise again (+ 16.62%) after losing more than a quarter of its value (-27.59%) the day before following a surge in the middle of the week .

© 2021 AFP