Stocks surge to record high after strong jobs report
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs on Friday after the October employment report blew past estimates.
The U.S. economy added 128,000 jobs last month, well ahead of the 89,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6 percent as wages grew at a 3 percent year-over-year clip. The better-than-expected results came despite the pressure from a six-week General Motors strike.
Helping fuel the rally was improvement in the manufacturing sector. ISM Manufacturing reading rose 0.5 percentage points to 48.3 in October, but that was below the 48.9 that economists surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting. The report ended six straight months of declines.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.97 percent and the Nasdaq added 1.13 percent on their way to their best closes on record. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 301 points, or 1.11 percent, but finished about two points below its own record close.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 44782 | -128.65 | -0.29% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 6047.15 | +14.77 | +0.24% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 19403.947849 | +185.78 | +0.97% |
President Trump touted the rally in a tweet.
The busiest week of earnings season came to a close on Friday. While about 75 percent of U.S. companies that have already reported have topped Wall Street's expectations, earnings are down for a third straight quarter, according to FactSet. Overall profits are expected to drop by about 2.7 percent.
Alibaba fell after reporting a profit of $10.1 billion, or $3.85 a share, easily beating analyst projections. The Chinese e-commerce giant said revenue from its cloud-computing business surged 64 percent from a year ago.
Meanwhile, energy giant Exxon Mobil rallied after third-quarter earnings fell 49 percent versus a year ago, but still beat on both the top and bottom lines. Chevron ended little changed after its third-quarter profit and revenue missed estimates. Both companies said business was hampered by falling oil and gas prices.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BABA | ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD. | 85.63 | -1.75 | -2.00% |
| XOM | EXXON MOBIL CORP. | 117.19 | -0.87 | -0.74% |
| CVX | CHEVRON CORP. | 161.93 | -0.18 | -0.11% |
Fitbit shares surged after Google agreed to buy the wearable-fitness technology maker for $2.1 billion, or $7.35 a share in cash. Google-parent Alphabet was little changed.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIT | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 168.95 | -0.28 | -0.17% |
Commodities were higher with West Texas Intermediate crude oil up 3.4 percent at $56.02 a barrel and gold flat at $1,514.90 an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys fell, running the yield on 10-year notes up 3.7 basis points to 1.728 percent.
In European trading, London's FTSE gained 0.75 percent, Germany's DAX added 0.73 percent and France's CAC rose 0.56 percent.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent, the Shanghai Composite jumped 1 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent.
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Ken Martin and the Associated Press contributed to this article.