Bond yields dropped, regional shares pared some losses, and European currencies rose on Friday in response to mixed U.S. labor market data that showed stronger payroll growth but an increase in the unemployment rate, while wage inflation showed indications of slowing.
In February, the United States added 311,000 payrolls, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.6%. According to Reuters’ poll of experts, the United States added 205,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.4%.
After increasing by 0.3% in January, the average hourly wage increased by 0.2% last month. Due in part to the removal of last year’s low values from the calculation, the year-over-year growth in earnings increased from 4.4% in January to 4.6% as a result.
Germany’s 2-year yield, which is most susceptible to shifts in interest rate expectations, fell further in the wake of the news and was last nearly 21 basis points lower at 3.072%, representing its worst daily decrease since July 22, 2022.
The benchmark 10-year yield for the EU, set by Germany, was last down 16 basis points at 2.486%.
Following the release of the data, the STOXX 600 briefly declined before reversing course to pare back earlier losses. It was last down 1%. Following a similar pattern, an index of banks in the euro zone was last down 4% after being negatively impacted by the fallout from SVB in previous trading.
Euros rose in value versus the dollar. Following a period of mostly flat trading, the euro was up 0.37% at $1.0623; sterling continued to advance, increasing 0.9% on the day to $1.20365; and the Swiss franc, as well as the Norwegian and Swedish crowns, all gained.
