The main United States stock markets posted firm gains on Friday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq Composite closing at record highs after data showed the domestic economy added more jobs in July than economists predicted.
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The data also suggests that the April and May jobs numbers were an aberration and that June was more consistent with what is going on in the economy, he said.
“Back-to-back strong jobs growth gives the Fed support to raise interest rates but does not make it inevitable”, said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones, adding a rate increase in December is more likely than September.
The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was 0.3% higher lower.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 34.94 points, or 0.68 percent, at 5,201.18.
The S&P 500 index showed 14 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 59 new highs and 22 new lows.
Financial and technology stocks soared and investors sold the safe assets they have favoured for most of this year.
For the week, the Dow industrials climbed 0.6%, the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq rallied 1.1%.
Auto-related stocks trimmed weekly losses after the jobs data, led by parts suppliers Delphi Automotive and BorgWarner which gained more than 2.1 percent.
The increase signals that the US economy is growing, despite issues surrounding much of Europe, and will likely put a Federal Reserve rate increase on the table for December or in early 2017, Kinahan added. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup rose about 3 per cent.
CONSUMER COMPANIES CLIMB: Online booking service Priceline posted a bigger profit than expected and its stock rose $66.42, or 4.9 percent, to $1,426.41. While the group reported declining year-over-year profits in the second quarter, the companies are beating analysts’ estimates by an average 7.3 percent, the most in the S&P 500.
While unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 per cent, it stayed below the 5 per cent mark associated with full employment. Spot Gold fell 1.82% today and was down -1.10% on the higher dollar.
SECURITY: Security software maker FireEye tumbled after it reported weak sales, cut its estimates for billings and revenue, and said it will eliminate 300 to 400 jobs to reduce costs.
LUNG CANCER TREATMENTS: Bristol-Myers Squibb stock sank $12.06, or 16 percent, to $63.26 after the company said its drug Opdivo did not halt progression of non-small cell lung cancer in a clinical study. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news. The news boosted Dow member Merck, which has a competing drug, pushing shares up a hefty 10.4 percent. The company, which took in $533 million from Keytruda this year, rose $6.02, or 10.4 percent, to $63.86.
Benchmark U S crude slid 13 cents to 41.89 dollars per barrel in NY while Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, dipped two cents to 44.27 dollars a barrel in London. Copper dipped 2 cents to $2.16 a pound. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
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The Dow is down 80.19 points, or 0.4 percent.
