U.S. benchmark equity indexes finished the week on a positive note as investors absorbed the recent remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell alongside the official jobs report for February. The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee is seeking "greater clarity" concerning the Trump administration's policy shifts before deciding on the next steps regarding interest rates.
Powell highlighted the significance of discerning valuable insights amid the evolving economic narrative, stating, "As we parse the incoming information about policy changes, we are focused on separating the signal from the noise. Despite elevated levels of uncertainty, the U.S. economy appears to be in a solid position." In terms of employment data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a rise of 151,000 nonfarm payrolls in the U.S.
for the previous month, slightly below the anticipated 160,000 increase compiled from Bloomberg surveys. The unemployment rate edged upward to 4.1%, up from January's figure of 4%, which aligns with market expectations for February. TD Economics expressed that job growth might experience a slowdown in the ensuing months due to federal layoffs linked to the Department of Government Efficiency, coupled with the ongoing uncertainties surrounding trade policies that could dampen hiring intentions in the near term. In the commodities market, April West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices increased by $0.66, closing at $67.02 per barrel.
Concurrently, May Brent crude, recognized as the global benchmark, saw a rise of $0.88, bringing its price to $70.34. This price movement followed statements made by Russia's oil minister indicating that OPEC+ might consider pausing the return of 2.2 million barrels in daily production cuts to the market after the initial April tranche. From a sector perspective, shares of Broadcom surged by 8.7% after the chipmaker presented an optimistic forecast for its fiscal second-quarter revenue, following a strong performance in its fiscal Q1.
Conversely, Hewlett Packard Enterprise faced a nearly 11% decline as it reported a disappointing full-year earnings outlook and revealed plans to reduce its workforce..