Stocks pointed mostly upward Friday after a blowout January jobs report served up the last major data point in a jam-packed week of market-moving events.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped 0.2%, or 70 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.3%.
Investors are nearing the end of a momentous week. As Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer reports, Friday’s highlight was the jobs report, which blew past Wall Street expectations as the economy added 353,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%.
The labor market has remained resilient in the face of a rate-hiking campaign from the Federal Reserve, but other data this week had shown signs of softening. Though the Jerome Powell-sparked sell-off of just two days ago is almost a mere footnote by now, Friday’s jobs report could once again shift expectations on the Fed’s rate path, especially as Powell suggested that a strong labor market is actually a good sign.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were still basking in the glow of strong earnings reports from tech giants Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) on Thursday. As Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban writes, they delivered the goods where Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) had fallen short earlier in the week. Meta surged more than 16% in morning trading, while Amazon popped 6%.
Apple (AAPL) also looks to have disappointed, despite an earnings beat Thursday, because of warning signs about its China business. Apple fell 3.5% at the market open.
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Fri, February 2, 2024 at 3:38 PM GMT+1
Stocks mostly positive in morning trading
Wall Street hesitated during morning trading on Friday, with the major indexes little changed. Investors digested a blockbuster jobs report that nearly doubled expected figures while parsing standout earnings from Tech giants Meta (META) and Amazon (AMZN).
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped 0.4%, or 150 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.5%.
Fri, February 2, 2024 at 2:59 PM GMT+1
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