We are seeing a rising stock market in the U.S. stock indexes are rising in early trading Monday, continuing a rally that began last Friday in hopes of a slowdown in the Fed’s key rate hike.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 147.95 points (0.44%) to 33778.56 points.
• The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 35.88 points (0.92%) to 3,930.96.
• The Nasdaq Composite jumped 175.69 points (1.66%) to 10744.98.

Will the U.S. stock market go up further?

According to data released last Friday, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy in December was the smallest since December 2020 and amounted to 223 thousand. Unemployment in the United States declined to 3.5% from 3.6% in November.

Meanwhile, average private-sector hourly earnings rose 0.3% in December from the previous month and 4.6% year-over-year. The rate of increase slowed from 0.4% and 4.8%, respectively, in November and was weaker than analysts’ expectations (0.4% and 5%).

“Investors immediately started pricing in a less aggressive rate hike by the Fed. For example, end-of-2023 rate futures fell 10.3 basis points in a week,” said Deutsche Bank (ETR: strategist Jim Reed. – This has been a major catalyst for risk assets.”

Leading the gains among Dow Jones index components is Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Inc., up 3.6%. Leaders of the decline were Travelers Cos. and Amgen, down 1.2%.

Also, a number of major retailers provided preliminary sales estimates for the important fourth quarter of last year, which falls on the Christmas holiday.

For example, apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) improved its quarterly and annual sales estimates Thanks to a strong performance over the winter holidays. The company now expects fourth-quarter sales growth of 1-2%, compared with a 2-4% decline previously forecast. Abercrombie shares are up 3.6%.

Department store chain Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M). fell 8.6% after the company said its revenue last quarter would be closer to the lower end of its guidance range.

Athletic apparel maker Lululemon Athletica’s capitalization fell 10%. It raised its October-December sales guidance to $2.66 billion from $2,605 billion to $2.655 billion, but slashed its gross margin estimate by 90-110 basis points, down from the 10-20 bps it had expected.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. is up 1.5%. According to preliminary estimates, last fiscal quarter revenue was down about 3% year-over-year, better than forecasts.

Earlier, we reported that Twitter users advised Twitter owner Elon Musk to “keep shooting himself in the foot“.