US close: S&P 500 ends lower for second week in a row

Wall Street edged higher on Friday despite a worse than expected non-farm payrolls report for April, which led several top brokers to push back their calls for the next Fed rate hike to September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 0.45% or 79,92 points to 17,740.63, while the S&P 500 nudged higher by 0.32% or 6.51 points to 2,057.14 and the Nasdaq added another 19.06 points or 0.40% to 4,7360.16.

Nonetheless, the S&P 500 was dragged lower for a second consecutive week. That came as the exodus of investors from equity funds continued, with the asset class registering a 13th consecutive week of outflows that brought the year-to-date tally to $27bn, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said citing data from EPFR Global. Commodities, fixed income and credit were among the main beneficiaries of the shift in investors' preferences.

US non-farm payrolls increased 160,000 last month, compared to forecasts of 200,000 and estimates for the previous two months were revised lower by a combined 19,000, the Labor Department revealed on Friday.

America's unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0%, as anticipated by analysts.

Average hourly earnings rose 2.5% year-on-year in April, beating forecasts for a 2.4% increase and following a 2.3% gain in March. On the month, however, hourly earnings growth remained at 0.3%, in line with estimates.

On the corporate front, shares in wearable camera maker GoPro slid after the company announced late on Thursday that it has fallen further into losses and downgraded its sales guidance for the year.

Miners shine bright

On the upside, Herbalife advanced after posting better-than-expected first-quarter results on Thursday.

Cigna Corp declined despite raising its outlook for the year and reporting first quarter earnings that beat forecasts.

Endo Intl. cratered after the drug-maker slashed its outlook for full-year revenues.

Madison Square Garden edged lower as it widened its loss in the first quarter to $60m from $11.5m a year earlier.

By industrial groups, the best performers were Non-ferrous metals (4.43%), Toys (3.78%) and Gold miners (3.24%).

Fed might still rates twice despite April jobs reports, Fed's Dudley says

Market commentary following the jobs was somewhat mixed but the figures were nevertheless enough to prompt various top analysts to erase a June rate hike from their spreadsheets, moving it back to September.

"On net, the softening in April payroll growth, led by the service-providing sector, will likely raise concerns over the sustainability of US growth.

"We now only expect one rate hike in 2016, in September, down from two hikes previously, as we believe it will take longer for policy-makers to accumulate sufficient evidence that economic and labor market activity is rebounding after a soft start to the year," Michael Gapen, Rob Martin and Jesse Hurwitz at Barclays said in a research report sent to clients.

"If the economy improves along the lines of our baseline forecast, there is a risk of a second rate hike this year in December" they added.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs also now see the next rate hike arriving in September.

In the afternoon the president of the Federal Reserve bank of New York, William Dudley, would tell the New York Times the US central bank might still raise rates twice in 2016, despite the April jobs numbers.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose three basis points to 1.78% as expectations for Fed tightening were pushed back, alongside a two basis point gain on two-year debt yields to 0.73%.

In currencies, the spot US dollar index edged higher by 0.12% to 93.89.

Commodities were broadly higher, despite that small gain in the greenback.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for delivery in June 2016 were up 0.77% to $44.66 per barrel by the close of trading on the NYMEX.

S&P 500 - Risers
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $37.87 +8.48%
Teradata Corp. (TDC) $28.14 +7.12%
PerkinElmer Inc. (PKI) $54.23 +6.84%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $10.72 +6.45%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $60.55 +5.14%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $24.80 +4.77%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $15.52 +4.44%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $11.79 +4.43%
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEC) $48.65 +4.42%
News Corp Class A (NWSA) $12.70 +4.35%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $16.17 -39.19%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $4.59 -19.61%
Mallinckrodt Plc Ordinary Shares (MNK) $56.40 -7.27%
Fluor Corp. (FLR) $51.79 -5.29%
Motorola Solutions Inc (MSI) $70.54 -5.00%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $92.39 -4.82%
Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (WLTW) $121.56 -4.78%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $19.07 -4.70%
Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) $19.70 -4.23%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $39.65 -4.23%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $68.25 +1.55%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $26.53 +1.22%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $82.13 +1.02%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $130.58 +1.01%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $64.26 +0.93%
American Express Co. (AXP) $64.51 +0.92%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $50.39 +0.90%
Boeing Co. (BA) $133.26 +0.89%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $101.12 +0.83%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $73.36 +0.78%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $53.60 -0.91%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $92.72 -0.56%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $158.85 -0.43%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $110.45 -0.27%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $132.04 -0.20%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $112.74 -0.12%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $37.87 +8.48%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $46.70 +5.92%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $60.55 +5.14%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $102.64 +3.42%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $63.94 +2.73%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $673.95 +2.25%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $28.28 +1.95%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $85.54 +1.83%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class C (DISCK) $27.67 +1.65%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $90.84 +1.64%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $16.17 -39.19%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $19.07 -4.70%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $39.65 -4.23%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $53.63 -3.30%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $79.43 -2.49%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $37.27 -2.26%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $369.95 -2.06%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $100.25 -1.44%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $84.68 -1.37%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $140.99 -1.12%