The major U.S. benchmarks are rebounding from Thursday’s losses as stocks look to end the week on a high note with commodities like oil and gold jumping well into positive territory.
Just before the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up roughly 700 points, or 2.1%; the S&P 500 was approximately 2.40% higher; and the Nasdaq Composite was up around 2.7% as beleaguered tech stocks find big gains on Friday.
Investors were encouraged by the latest jobs report. U.S. payrolls expanded more than expected, wage increases slowed and services activity contracted, easing worries about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking path.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 223,000 jobs in December, Labor Department data showed, while a 0.3% rise in average earnings was smaller than expected and less than the previous month’s 0.4%.
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“The stock market’s wondering today did Goldilocks just enter the room? Did the Fed pull it off? Did they slow the economy and not employment?” said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio, who saw the services and jobs reports as investors’ cue to resume buying.
“The worry this year was that the Fed was going to force a recession. Today’s reports may alleviate that pressure to force a recession. They may already have slowed down the economy enough. They just need validation from inflation reports.”
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After trading in the red for much of the week, shares of Apple, Meta, Amazon and Nvidia are all roughly 3% in the green, helping lift the Nasdaq to a session win.
Blue-chip stocks like American Express, Boeing and Nike are all above the redline to move the Dow even higher, while energy stocks across the Standards & Poor’s has the index positioned for a win on Friday.
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude was up around 0.16% to $73.79 a barrel, while gold was nearly 1.84% higher to $1874.40 an ounce.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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