By Johann M Cherian and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi
Oct 2 (Reuters) - US stocks rose on Friday, pushing the Nasdaq Composite to a record high, after weaker-than-expected jobs data further reduced odds of a near-term rate hike, while lower oil prices added to the risk-on mood.
Semiconductor stocks and megacaps led the gains. Nvidia touched intraday record high, up 1.9%, while the Philadelphia chip index firmed 3%. Among other heavyweights, Musk-led SpaceX added 6.2%, Tesla gained 5.5%, while Oracle rose 2.4%.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department's closely watched employment report showed, far below the 90,000 jobs increase expected by economists polled by Reuters. The numbers for the prior two months were revised sharply lower.
"The lower jobs print, including the revision, is, oddly enough, good news for stocks. With the bond market organically doing the job of the Fed recently, we needed to sacrifice a headline metric and this morning's report accomplished the goal," said Todd Schoenberger, chief investment officer at CrossCheck Management.
A string of recent data showing resilient economic activity and a slower-than-expected increase in prices, along with comments from at least two top policymakers pushing back against another rate increase, had already led investors to increasingly bet that the central bank would keep rates on hold at its meeting this month.
Friday's jobs data "definitely lessens the risk of an October rate hike. We're still focused on the December meeting itself," Gary Schlossberg, global strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said.
Traders now assign a 20% probability that the Federal Reserve would hike rates by 25 basis points in October, compared with 26% before the report.
Adding to the positive sentiment, Brent crude prices slipped below $100 a barrel after a report that the European Union discussed additional diesel and crude stock releases, even though there were no new updates on the resolution to the Middle East conflict.
The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, fell to a one-week low and was last down at 15.67 points.
At 11:37 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.27 points, or 0.36%, to 51,108.83, the S&P 500 gained 52.69 points, or 0.69%, to 7,719.22 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 309.80 points, or 1.15%, to 27,181.39.
Six of the 11 major sectors on the S&P 500 were trading higher, with materials and the technology index leading the gains and the healthcare index and the energy sector lagging.
The S&P 500 was on track for a modest weekly loss after volatile trading this week, as a Treasury selloff on inflation and fiscal concerns lifted the 10-year yield to its highest level in decades.
Nike fell 5.6% on Friday after the US sportswear company forecast a surprise steep drop in annual revenue due to weakness in China, announced job cuts and decided to shake up its global business divisions.
Among other equities, shares of data storage providers Western Digital and Seagate Technology fell around 14% each after Nikkei reported that Japanese technology group Toshiba plans to double its production capacity for hard disk drives used in AI data centers within fiscal 2027.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.7-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted nine new 52-week highs and 16 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 41 new highs and 143 new lows.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shinjini Ganguli)
