Tag Archives: unemployment

Stocks Rise Slightly After Jobs Data

FRIDAY – U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday, erasing an earlier decline after the release of the latest U.S. jobs report.

The U.S. economy added 136,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 145,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, a 50-year low, but wages grew at a slower-than-expected pace last month.

Treasury yields briefly jumped before giving back those gains. The 10-year yield last traded at 1.53% after hitting 1.55%.

Wall Street will be watching speeches by Fed officials later in the day, including Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren.

Stocks came into Friday’s session on pace to record large losses for the week. The Dow was down 2.3% through Thursday’s close while the S&P 500 had lost 1.7%. The Nasdaq was down 0.9% week to date.

Those weekly losses came after a dismal U.S. manufacturing data report sparked fears of a potential recession in the U.S. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the Dow lost more than 800 points.

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3.9% Unemployment Can’t Keep Stocks Up

U.S. stocks fell Friday morning after the government’s monthly jobs report missed Wall Street expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 100 points shortly after the opening bell, as large industrial components like Boeing and Caterpillar weighed down the other blue-chip stocks.

The S&P 500 fell about 0.4 percent in early trading as a decline in interest rates pulled financial and banking stocks down; shares of J.P. Morgan fell 0.8 percent while Bank of America lost about 1 percent.

The Labor Department reported that the economy added 164,000 jobs in the month of April, lower than the 195,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters. Average hourly earnings growth also missed, rising only 0.15 percent against expectations of a 0.2 percent gain.

Despite the miss in the number of jobs added, the government said the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, an 18-year low.

Despite a broader slip in equities, Apple jumped after longtime investor Warren Buffett revealed that he bought 75 million shares during the first quarter, which added to the conglomerate’s already massive stake in the tech giant, “brought down our cash position moderately.”

The early moves in U.S. stocks came as markets across the globe showed a mixed picture. On Thursday, U.S. stocks finished relatively mixed, after the Dow Jones industrial average erased a nearly 400-point loss during the session, on the back of strong earnings.

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