S&P Gains After Jobs Report, But Still Headed for Losing Week



The S&P 500 edged higher on Friday after an expectation-defying jobs report left investors wondering what’s next for the path of interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 148.92 points to 42,160.51.

The much broader index picked up 25.48 points to 5,725.46

The NASDAQ Composite hiked 143.06 points to 18,061.53.

The Dow and NASDAQ were each off by 0.4%, on the week. The S&P 500 was poised to shed 0.3%.

Tesla, Amazon and Netflix were among the megacap tech names climbing on Friday, explaining the Nasdaq’s outperformance.

Stocks initially popped after data showed nonfarm payrolls grew by 254,000 jobs in September, far outpacing the forecasted gain of 150,000 from economists polled by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% despite expectations for it to hold steady at 4.2%.

Prices for the 10-year Treasury dropped making yields pop to 3.97% from Thursday’s 3.85%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices improved $1.37 to $75.08 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices fell $10.60 to $2,668.60 U.S. an ounce