Update: US Equity Indexes Advance as Weak Jobs Report Cuts Hawkish Outlook for Fed Policy in October

02:29 PM EDT, 10/02/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves and company news.) US equity indexes rose, with the Nasdaq Composite leading the three benchmark gauges, after a weak September jobs report slashed the odds of a back-to-back monetary policy tightening in October. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.1% to 27,159.5, the S&P 500 climbed 0.7% to 7,716.1, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.4% to 51,104.6 ahead of Friday's close. All but two sectors rose, with consumer discretionary, materials, and technology leading the gainers. The September employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 29,000, below the 90,000 increase expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey, while August jobs were revised downward to a 133,000 increase and July payrolls were adjusted lower to a 10,000 decrease, for a net reduction of 60,000 jobs. Traders slashed the probability of the Federal Reserve raising its target rate by 25 basis points in October to 22% from 64% a week earlier, according to the FedWatch tool. The remaining 78% likelihood is that rates will remain unchanged in the 3.75% to 4.00% range. The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract dropped 1.6% to $91.41 per barrel, while the global benchmark North Sea Brent rose 0.1% to $102.44 per barrel, clawing back intraday declines. G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of energy reserves "immediately over 4 months" to help ease price pressures, it said. The plan includes a "frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days" by G7 members and partners, per a G7 statement. In company news, Nvidia's (NVDA) DGX Spark personal AI computer will be offered in a new 64-gigabyte unified-memory configuration from Acer, Asus, Dell (DELL), Gigabyte, HP (HPQ) and MSI starting Oct. 23, with prices from $4,999, the company said Friday. Shares traded up 1.6% after hitting an all-time high earlier in the session.