U.S. stocks rise; S&P 500 hits record high
Jobs report ‘not a game-changer’ for stocks
NEW YORK (MarketWatch)—The U.S. stock market rose modestly on Friday as investors shrugged off a weaker-than-expected jobs report. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded their fifth consecutive weekly gains.
A surprisingly weak jobs report indicated a marked slowdown in the labor market. However the initial reaction was muted, as investors appeared to focus on the idea that the creation of fewer new jobs than expected won’t alter the Federal Reserve’s thinking on interest rates.
Analysts also cautioned against putting too much emphasis on just one month’s data.
The economy added 142,000 new jobs in August, the smallest gain since December and well below Wall Street expectations for 228,000.
Even so, “most indicators in the report were better than in July,” said John Canally, investment strategist and economist at LPL Financial. “After the initial knee-jerk reaction, investors looked into the details and at implications and realized that this report was not a game-changer.” .
But Uri Landesman, the president of Platinum Partners, a New York-based hedge fund, said the weak jobs numbers may indicate the recovery is stalling.
“In the short term, a few more weak data points may trigger a correction. The market is pricing in the good news but not a lot of bad news. From a technical standpoint, there is not much support in the S&P 500, as the index moved in a straight line up,” Landesman said.
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