ASX set to rise as Wall Street jumps to trim its losses for the week

DoorDash sank 11.5 per cent after reporting a worse loss than expected. The company, which has been spending more on personnel and research and development, also gave a forecasted range for underlying earning trends in the current quarter whose midpoint fell short of analysts’ expectations.

Peloton Interactive swung from an early gain to a loss of 9.6 per cent after it said it would cut roughly 400 jobs as part of a program to save $US200 million ($305 million) in costs annually. It also said its CEO, Barry McCarthy, is stepping down. The company’s stock had fallen to a record low last week.

Linde was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, sinking 5.5 per cent, despite reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than expected. Revenue for the industrial gases and engineering company fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, as did the midpoint of its forecasted range for earnings in the current quarter.

In the bond market, which has been helping to dictate much of the stock market’s movements recently, yields were easing following some economic reports.

One showed that fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the job market remains solid despite high interest rates.

A separate, potentially more disappointing report suggested growth in how much US workers produced per hour worked was weaker at the start of 2024 than economists expected. A measure comparing labor costs to productivity, meanwhile, rose by more than expected in the preliminary report. That could put upward pressure on inflation, which is one of the biggest fears on Wall Street.

The economy is in a tight spot, where the hope is that it remains strong enough to stay out of a recession but not so strong that it worsens the already stalled progress on inflation.

Stubbornly high readings on inflation this year are what pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to say on Wednesday that it will likely take “longer than previously expected” to get enough confidence inflation is under control before it can cut interest rates.

The Fed’s main interest rate has been sitting at its highest level since 2001, and cuts would release some pressure on the economy and financial markets.

After coming into the year forecasting six or more cuts to rates in 2024, traders are now largely betting on just one or two, if any, according to data from CME Group.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.58 per cent from 4.63 per cent late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.89 per cent from 4.97 per cent.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Asia and Europe. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.5 per cent, while other markets in China were closed for a holiday.

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