Samsara jumps 15%, Zscaler beats and goes nowhere, bitcoin tops $81,000 — Wall Street’s best day in a month lands the night before the jobs report
Thursday was the day the week’s selling paused and the market showed what it still wants. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he would be inclined to hold interest rates steady in September if next week’s inflation report shows progress, a week after Chair Kevin Warsh had put a hike on the table. That one sentence cut the market-implied chance of a September rate increase from 63% to 50%, pulled the 10-year Treasury yield down for a second day to 4.77% from Wednesday’s 4.82% peak, pushed the dollar to a third straight loss and sent the S&P 500 up 1.06% to 7,747.71, its biggest gain in nearly a month. The Nasdaq rose 1.4%, the Dow 624 points, and the Nasdaq-100 closed back above its 50-day average after two days beneath it. Bitcoin, which had spent two sessions stuck under $78,000, ran 5.5% to $81,491, its first close above $80,000 this month and its highest in almost four months.