U.S. hiring stalls at 29,000, yet Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq surge: Why Wall Street welcomed September’s weak jobs report

US jobs report and markets: The U.S. added only 29,000 jobs in September, far below the 90,000 economists expected. Unemployment also edged up to 4.2%. On the surface, that looks like bad news for the economy. Wall Street saw another side of it. The Dow rose 0.64%, the S&P 500 gained 0.90%, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.39%. The reason was the growing possibility that weaker hiring could reduce pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates high.