New Zealand routs India, South Africa thumps West Indies at Women's T20 World Cup

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — New Zealand dismissed India for 102 to surprisingly win by 58 runs in the Women's T20 World Cup on Friday.

Also, South Africa pasted the West Indies by 10 wickets.

New Zealand posted a challenging 160-4 and then rolled India in 19 overs for its only second win in 14 T20s this year.

Captain Sophie Devine's unbeaten 57 off 36 balls with seven boundaries propelled New Zealand’s total in the last five overs.

A run-out dispute stopped play briefly when India thought it bagged Amelia Kerr, who was trying to sneak a second run in the 14th over. The umpires ruled the run out irrelevant because it was a dead ball. Kerr had walked to almost the rope boundary before the ruling by the fourth umpire.

India protested to no avail. But there was no damage. Kerr was caught in the covers off the next ball.

Devine's strong finish followed a strong foundation of 67 off 46 balls by openers Georgia Plimmer (34) and Suzie Bates (27).

Plimmer and Bates perished while looking for big hits, but India's hope of a comeback was stymied by Devine raising her fourth T20 half-century off 33 balls. New Zealand racked up 51 runs off the last five overs.

Rosemary Mair trapped India captain Harmanpreet Kaur inside the power play in a scene-stealing 4-19. Mair claimed the last two wickets off successive balls, and fast bowler Lea Tahuhu chipped in with 3-15 to help bundle out India with an over to spare.

Eden Carsen struck off her first delivery with a caught-and-bowled of Shafali Verma, and in her next over dismissed Smriti Mandhana on 12. India couldn’t recover after the dismissal of its senior pros inside the power play.

Captain Laura Wolvaardt (59 not out) and Tazmin Brits (57 not out) made light work of South Africa's chase, reaching 119 without loss with 13 balls to spare.

Left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba grabbed a career-best 4-29 as the West Indies was restricted to 118-6.

West Indies tried eight bowlers to try and prise out Wolvaardt and Brits, who struck 13 boundaries between them.

Spinner Karishma Ramharack came closest to the breakthrough but couldn’t hold on to a sharp return catch when Wolvaardt was on 33.

Earlier, West Indies captain Hayley Matthews feathered an easy catch behind on 10 while going for a drive against Marizanne Kapp in the third over.

Veteran Deandra Dottin lasted for 11 deliveries and scored 13 in her comeback game after two years out before she was caught by Wolvaardt at extra cover while trying to clear the circle against Kapp’s full-pitched delivery.

Mlaba squeezed the West Indies middle order and was on a hat trick after dismissing Shemaine Campbelle and Chinelle Henry to reduce them to 83-6 in 15 overs.

Stafanie Taylor (44 not out) and Zaida James (15) added 35 runs off the final 29 balls but their total never looked enough.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

New Zealand's Suzie Bates bats during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand's Suzie Bates bats during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

India's captain Harmanpreet Kaur, left, celebrates with her teammate Asha Sobhana celebrates after she took the wicket of New Zealand's Georgia Plimmer during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

India's Asha Sobhana, right, celebrates after taking the wicket of New Zealand's Georgia Plimmer, left, during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

India's wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, right, unsuccessfully tries to run out New Zealand's Amelia Kerr during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand's Brooke Halliday bats during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand's captain Sophie Devine celebrates her fifty runs during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand team members congratulate Eden Carson, third from left, after she took the wicket of India's Smriti Mandhana during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand's Lea Tahuhu bowls during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

New Zealand's Lea Tahuhu, second from right, celebrates the wicket of India's Jemimah Rodrigues with her teammates during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks closed higher after a surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report raised optimism about the economy. The S&P 500 added 0.9% Friday and neared its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8% and reached its own record. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.2%. Banks, cruise-ship operators and other companies whose profits can benefit the most from a stronger economy led the way. But jumping Treasury yields and diminished expectations for future cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve dragged down home builders to keep the stock market’s gains in check. Oil prices rose, but not by as much as earlier in the week.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Friday after a surprisingly strong report on the U.S. job market raised optimism about the economy.

The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in late trading and nearing its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 223 points, or 0.5%, with a little less than an hour remaining in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher.

Leading the way were banks, cruise-ship operators and other companies whose profits can benefit the most from a stronger economy where people are working and better able to pay for things. Norwegian Cruise Line steamed 3.8% higher, JPMorgan Chase rose 3.3% and the small companies in the Russell 2000 index gained 1.3%.

They helped stock indexes claw back some of their losses from earlier in the week, caused by worries that worsening tensions in the Middle East could lead to disruptions in the global flow of oil. Crude prices ticked higher again on Friday, but the moves were more modest than earlier in the week, as the world continued its wait to see how Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack from Tuesday.

In the meantime, the strength of the U.S. economy reclaimed its spot as the top mover of markets.

Treasury yields soared in the bond market after the U.S. government said employers added 254,000 more jobs to their payrolls last month than they cut. That was an acceleration from August’s hiring pace of 159,000 and blew past economists’ forecasts.

It was a “grand slam” of a report, according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She said policy makers at the Federal Reserve, who have been trying to pull off the difficult feat of keeping the economy humming while getting inflation under control, “must be smiling.”

Friday’s report capped a week of mostly encouraging data on the job market, helping to allay one of Wall Street’s top questions: Can the job market continue to hold up after the Federal Reserve earlier kept interest rates at a two-decade high?

Before Friday’s jobs report, the general trend had been a slowdown in hiring by U.S. employers. That’s not surprising given how hard the Fed pressed the brakes on the economy through higher rates in order to stamp out high inflation.

But Friday's blowout numbers bolstered hope that the U.S. economy will avoid a recession, particularly now that the Federal Reserve has begun cutting interest rates to give it more juice. The Fed last month lowered its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years and indicated more cuts will arrive through next year.

Friday's jobs data was so strong that it pushed traders to abandon bets that the Federal Reserve will deliver another larger-than-usual cut to interest rates at its next meeting. They’re now forecasting zero chance for a cut of half a percentage point, according to data from CME Group. Just a week ago, they were saying it was better-than-a-coin-flip’s chance.

“This report tells the Fed that they still need to be careful as a strong labor market along with sticky housing/shelter data shows that it won’t be easy to engineer meaningfully lower inflation from here in the nearer term,” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

At Bank of America, economist Aditya Bhave said he expects the Federal Reserve to stop cutting its target for the federal funds rate when it hits a range of 3% to 3.25%. That's a quarter of a percentage point higher than the bottom that he was earlier forecasting. The federal funds rate is currently sitting in a range of 4.75% to 5%.

Such diminished expectations for future cuts sent the yield on the two-year Treasury shooting up to 3.92% from 3.71% late Thursday. The 10-year yield jumped to to 3.98% from 3.85%.

The forced rethink about how much lower rates will ultimately go also hurt stocks of home builders, real-estate owners and other companies that flourish when rates are easier for mortgages.

D.R. Horton, PulteGroup and Lennar all sank at least 2.7% for three of the biggest losses in the S&P 500. Home Depot dropped 1.3% and was the biggest single reason the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lagging other stock indexes.

Also Friday, some 45,000 dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports returned to work after their union reached a deal to suspend its three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. That helped calm worries that a lengthy strike could have pushed up on inflation and dragged on the economy.

In the oil market, the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $78.05 per barrel to bring its gain for the week to 9.1%. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 0.9% to $74.38, up from roughly $68 at the start of the week.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe following the strong jobs report from the world’s largest economy.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.8% in its latest sharp swerve. It soared a bit more than 10% this week on excitement about a flurry of recent announcements from Beijing to prop up the world’s second-largest economy.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

FILE - Signs mark the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in the Financial District on Oct. 2, 2024, in New York. Trinity Church is in the background. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - The entrance to the New York Stock Exchange at Wall and New Streets is shown on Oct. 2, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)