us stocks and bond yields rose to start the second quarter following a solid employment report that showed the country’s jobless rate returning to prepandemic levels the sp 500 added 03 friday a day after the benchmark stocks gauge closed out its biggest quarterly decline since the start of 2020 falling about 5 for the first three months of the year the dow jones industrial average and the technologyheavy nasdaq composite gained 03 and 04 respectively in the bond market the yield on benchmark 10year treasury notes rose to 2440 from 2324 thursday yields rise as bond prices fall they have climbed for five of the past seven quarters as investors prepare for the federal reserve to keep raising interest rates to quell inflation twoyear yields which are more sensitive to expectations of shortterm interest rates rose to 2444 when the twoyear yield climbs above the 10year yield the yield curve is said to be inverted something that is often viewed as a predictor of recessions the curve inverted tuesday for the first time since 2019 employers added 431000 jobs in march marking 11 straight monthly gains above 400000 the longest such stretch of growth in records dating back to 1939 the unemployment rate fell to 36 from 38 economists surveyed by the wall street journal ahead of the report projected the economy grew by 490000 jobs the unemployment rate is quickly approaching the february 2020 prepandemic rate of 35 which was a 50year low “the labor market is really strong why is this data not being celebrated more it’s just the fact that inflation swamps everything” said michael antonelli managing director and market strategist at baird he added that clients with whom he speaks are taking a pause having spent much of the first quarter shifting their investments in a wildly swinging stock market angst about the economic outlook is one reason why stocks have had a rocky start to 2022 investors are parsing fastmoving developments on the battlefield in ukraine and their effects on the world economy and financial system of particular concern to money managers is the rise in commodity prices fueling inflation the rally in prices for oil grains and metals has added to expectations that the fed will end years of easy monetary policy that propelled stocks higher for the fed a key factor in deciding how fast to raise rates is the state of the labor market gamestop shares rose 11 in early trading the videogame retailer said thursday that it would request shareholder approval to increase its share count to enable a stock split dell technologies edged down 37 after analysts at goldman sachs cut their target price for the stock in overseas markets the stoxx europe 600 rose 05 led higher by shares of oil gas and auto companies china’s shanghai composite index rose 09 hong kong’s hang seng edged up 02 and japan’s nikkei 225 slipped 06 underlining that inflationary pressures aren’t confined to the us consumer prices in the eurozone rose 75 in march from a year earlier—the highest level since the formation of the currency bloc also due friday is the institute for supply management’s gauge of manufacturing in the us at 10 am et european naturalgas prices slipped as trader nervousness about russian president vladimir putin’s threat to cut exports eased mr putin said in an interview broadcast thursday that moscow would halt gas deliveries to “unfriendly states” unless they switched to payment by rubles by friday the policy has caused a standoff with germany a key importer of russian gas which is refusing to pay by ruble analysts said flows of russian gas to europe were steady friday helping to keep a lid on prices benchmark european gas futures edged down 31 to 12197 euros equivalent to 13485 a megawatthour elsewhere in commodities brentcrude oil prices fell 15 to 10316 a barrel they remain on course to fall for the week after the biden administration set out plans to release up to 180 million barrels from the us strategic petroleum reserve