By Chris Prentice and Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street’s major indexes rose on Thursday with the S&P hovering near the 5,000-point milestone as investors reacted to earnings reports and U.S. jobs data, and the U.S. dollar gained.
European equities slipped and U.S. Treasury yields rose after a 30-year bond auction.
Oil prices jumped on concerns of a broadening Middle East conflict.
The number of Americans filing for state unemployment benefits dipped to 218,000 during the week ended Feb. 3, compared with economists’ forecast of 220,000, data showed.
Both U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank policymakers, as well as those in some big emerging markets, have been pushing back against expectations of rapid rate cuts as they gauge whether inflation has been adequately tamed.
The likelihood of a Fed rate cut in March slipped 2-1/2 percentage points from Wednesday to 16.5%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. The probability a week ago was 36.5%.
“We continue to get positive surprises in the U.S. and we’re not getting enough positive surprises in the rest of the world, and certainly not in China,” said Thierry Wizman, global FX and interest rates strategist at Macquarie in New York.
The dollar index gained 0.1% at 104.13, with the euro up 0.05% at 1.0776 and the euro
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