Wall Street Stocks Have Tug of War After Jobs Report
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Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — On this jobs-report Friday, stocks surged, sagged and at the close surged again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at the high of the day, up 147 points at 15,135.84.
The Nasdaq Composite finished the day up 36 points at 3,479.38, while the S&P added 16 points to close at 1,631.89.
Friday’s trading seemed to be like a tug of war on the street pitting better-than-expected jobs news against a sooner-than-expected end to the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying stimulus program.
For a change, the thought of an economy not having Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s stimulus program to keep it steady did not cause investors to panic. Analysts are starting to believe that the stronger-than-expected job growth is a real sign that the economy is on track to pick up a little momentum in the second half of the year.
The biggest winners Friday on the Dow were General Electric (+0.33 at 23.24), Boeing (+1.31 at 104.20) and Chevron (+1.43 at 120.51). Twenty-six of the 30 industrials finished the Friday session higher.
Mortgage rates were also higher on Friday. According to BankRate.com, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now 4.4 percent back, compared to May 1 when it was 3.5 percent. That big jump could be one of the reasons homebuilding stocks were among Friday’s worst performers. Previously, on Wednesday, Freddie Mac reported the average of the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to 4.29 percent.
Even though rates have climbed nearly a full percent in the last two months, they are still low by historical standards.
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