Videos from Reuters Job growth propels Wall Street to new highs. This weekend’s Independence Day celebration will be marked by fireworks on Wall Street, completing a Wall Street trifecta. On Friday, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all established new closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 152 points. The S&P 500 index gained 32 points to set a new closing high for the seventh time in a row. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 116 points. The jobs report did not disappoint this time. Employers in the United States added a stronger-than-expected 850,000 new jobs in June, with the industries that have been hardest hit over the past year hiring the most. Last month’s job growth came from the leisure and hospitality industry, which accounted for 40% of the total. There was more good news for employees. On a yearly basis, average pay is 3.6 percent higher. However, the jobless rate increased to 5.9%. According to Kevin Mahn, head of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management, “markets like that this jobs number does little to modify the Federal Reserve’s forecast.” “I expect the Fed will wait a little longer before considering raising interest rates due to the stubborn labor participation rate and the large number of Americans who aren’t actively looking for work. As a result, we’re likely to see record low interest rates not only for the rest of this year, but also for the duration of 2022.” In the business world: Richard Branson, a billionaire entrepreneur, wants to lead the race for space. On July 11, he’ll take a Virgin Galactic test trip to the edge of the atmosphere, leapfrogging Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, who thought he’d be the first billionaire in space on a July 20th suborbital flight. Virgin Galactic’s stock increased by 4%. Chinese officials have put the brakes on Didi Global, the Chinese counterpart of Uber, only days after it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. To protect national security and the public interest, China’s cyberspace administration said it will launch a new probe into the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth. Didi will be unable to register new users throughout the investigation. Didi’s stock has dropped by 5%. Jim Whitehurst, who was a key figure in IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat two years ago, is stepping down as president of the company. IBM’s stock dropped 4.6 percent as a result of the management shuffle./n
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