This week, US equities eked out an all-time high on Friday as investors expected the June jobs report to entice the Federal Reserve to consider a rate cut. 

The benchmark S&P 500 inched roughly 0.6 per cent above a record close in the abbreviated session on Wednesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9 per cent, driven by gains from major tech companies.

Leading the market were Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and Meta (META), whose stocks hit record highs on Friday.  

All three major gauges were in the green for the first trading week in the second half of the year.

Most focus was on the labour market Friday after 206,000 workers joined the US economy in June — blowing past the Wall Street expectation for 190,000. However, the unemployment rate peaked at 4.1 per cent, the highest since November 2021, signalling a cooling job market.

Indications of slackening in labour data have been supporting the view that inflation would slow further, providing room for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates from their twenty-year highs. Traders were now pricing in a 75 per cent chance of a cut in September, according to CME's FedWatch tool.  

The 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 4.27 per cent, sliding further after being down through much of the week.

Investors are scouring Friday's jobs data for signs of whether the slowing job growth suggests labour markets are normalising post-pandemic or is an early signal of a broader economic slowdown.