Global markets were largely recording gains on Friday as technology stocks steadied and investors digested a U.S. jobs report which lessened concerns about the need for interest-rate increases.

South Korea's KOSPI -- one of the hottest international markets so far this year-- rose 5.8%, boosted by gains for memory-chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. However, it was still down 3.8% for the week.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was gaining 0.3% in morning trading. Chipmaking equipment company ASML Holding --Europe's largest company by market capitalization-- was rising 2.2% after a two-day slide that had seen shares fall around 9% from recent highs.

U.S. stock and bond markets are closed in an early celebration of the Independence Day holiday, which falls on a Saturday this year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to a record Thursday, rising 1.1%, or around 595 points, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.8%. Declines in technology stocks weighed on the S&P 500, which eked out a gain of less than one point.

Weak jobs data on Thursday gave further impetus to a rotation away from stocks exposed to the artificial-intelligence boom and toward healthcare, consumer staples and other stock sectors which have lagged behind technology. At the same time, investors are reducing their bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.

"With the jobs report in hand, the speculation about an imminent July rate hike continued to ebb. Indeed, market pricing has shifted a lot in the last 48 hours, as we also had the comments from Fed Chair Warsh at Sintra on Wednesday that inflation risks had come down," wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid in a research note.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 03, 2026 05:40 ET (09:40 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.