- Major equity indexes opened in the positive territory on Friday.
- Unemployment Rate in US declined to 6.3% in January.
- Energy stocks post strong gains after the opening bell.
Wall Street’s main indexes started the last day of the week in the positive territory with the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) indexes both touching new all-time highs at the opening bell. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.42% on the day at 31,190, the SPX was gaining 0.32% at 3,884 and the Nasdaq Composite was gaining 0.05% at 13,559.
Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in January increased by 49,000. Although the underlying details of the report revealed that December’s NFP reading got revised down to -227,000 from -140,000, the Unemployment Rate improved to 6.3% from 6.7%.
Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is up 1.4% supported by a more-than-1% increase in crude oil prices. On the other hand, the Technology Index is the only major sector trading in the red.
S&P 500 chart (daily)
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