[Wall Street Close | October 2] Concerns about interest rate hikes ease due to slowing employment… Nasdaq rose 1.19%

Semiconductor index rose 2.40%... Tesla rose 4.65% due to deliveries exceeding expectations; Seagate and Western Digital fell sharply on reports of Toshiba's plan to increase production

The New York stock market rose all at once as the burden of additional interest rate increases eased due to the slowdown in employment growth in the United States. With semiconductors and large technology stocks showing strength, the Nasdaq index rose by the largest amount among the three major indices.

On the 2nd (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended trading at 51,176.96, up 250.40 points (0.49%) from the previous day. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index closed at 7,722.72, up 56.27 points (0.73%), and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 27,190.86, up 319.27 points (1.19%).

The employment indicator released today lowered caution about further interest rate hikes. U.S. non-farm payrolls in September increased by 29,000 from the previous month, falling below market expectations of 90,000 as compiled by Reuters. The increase in employment between July and August was also revised downward by a total of 60,000 people. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, and the average hourly wage increased by 0.1% compared to the previous month.

The interest rate futures market continued to view the possibility of an interest rate increase in October as low. According to the CME FedWatch tally cited by Reuters, the probability that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by more than 0.25 percentage points in October is 22.7%, slightly lower than the previous day's 24.4%. This figure reached 64.2% a week ago.

In the semiconductor industry, Broadcom rose 3.35%, AMD rose 2.95%, and Nvidia rose 1.34%. Texas Instruments also joined the strong performance, rising 4.44%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed at 13,136.68, up 307.68 points (2.40%), exceeding the rate of increase of major indices.

Tesla rose 4.65% as vehicle deliveries in the third quarter exceeded market expectations. The delivery volume announced by the company was 486,532 units, exceeding the market expectation of about 461,000 units compiled by FactSet. Although it decreased by about 2.1% compared to the same period last year, the stock price rose due to better-than-expected sales performance.

Most other large technology stocks also rose. Alphabet rose 1.55%, Amazon rose 1.32%, Apple rose 1.02%, Microsoft rose 0.92%, and Meta rose 0.30%. Oracle and Dell also rose 3.06% and 3.84%, respectively.

Despite the strength of overall technology stocks, stocks related to storage devices fell. Seagate plunged 10.21%, and Western Digital also fell about 10%. As reports emerged that Toshiba plans to double its hard disk production capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, concerns about intensifying competition and easing supply shortages weighed on stock prices. SanDisk and Micron also fell 3.79% and 2.05%, respectively.

Despite the concurrent increase on this day, the weekly performance was mixed. Nasdaq rose 0.45% during the week, but S&P 500 and Dow fell 0.27% and 1.26%, respectively, failing to make up for all of the week's losses.