WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After moving to the upside early in the session, stocks remained mostly higher throughout the trading day on Friday. The major averages all ended the day in positive territory, with the S&P 500 reaching a new record closing high.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher, jumping 342.26 points or 1.3 percent to 26,690.62. The S&P 500 also climbed 47.68 points or 0.6 percent to 7,757.64, while the narrower Dow rose 151.83 points or 0.3 percent to 54,036.93.
For the week, the Nasdaq spiked by 5.2 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Dow surged by 3.6 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
The strength on Wall Street came amid easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest decrease in U.S. employment in the month of July.
The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment fell by 23,000 jobs in July after rising by a downwardly revised 20,000 jobs in June.
Economists had expected employment to climb by 88,000 jobs compared to the addition of 57,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
While the report points to some weakness in the labor market, the data is also seen as decreasing the chances of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates next month.
According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the chances the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point next month have tumbled to 44 percent from 55 percent on Thursday and 67 percent a week ago.
'Before today, many were expecting that the Fed had no choice but to raise rates in order to fight stubbornly high inflation, because the job market was so strong, but this report shows that isn't the case,' said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Northlight Asset Management.
He added, 'Next week's CPI release will be important - and if the data continues to come in higher than expected, it could raise the probability of a rate hike at the Fed's next meeting - but today's jobs numbers should be enough to keep the Fed on hold for at least another meeting, which all things being equal is a positive for the stock market.'
Meanwhile, the report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1 percent in July from 4.2 percent in June. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.
Sector News
Gold stocks moved sharply higher along with the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 7.4 percent to its best closing level in well over two months.
Substantial strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 4.4 percent spike by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Biotechnology stocks also showed a significant move to the upside, with the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index surging by 3.2 percent.
Semiconductor, housing and software stocks are saw considerable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Friday. South Korea's Kospi slid by 0.6 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged down by 0.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index jumped by 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.2 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground after an early rally, closing only slight higher. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.0 basis points to 4.660 percent after hitting a low of 4.603 percent.
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