US close: Stocks jump after weak September jobs report
Wall Street jumped following the release of much-weaker-than expected jobs data for September.
The Dow Jones Industrials finished higher by 1.23% or 200.36 points to 16,472.37, alongside a 1.43% advance for the S&P 500 to reach 1,951.36 and a 1.74% jump in the Nasdaq Composite to 4,707.78.
The intra-day turnaround in the benchmark S&P 500 index, which recovered from an initial 1.6% slide after the employment figures hit the tape was the largest in four years.
That allowed the S&P 500 to end the week with a 1% gain. Buyers apparently stepped in again, as they did on Tuesday, when the S&P 500 fell to trade just five points above the 25 August low of 1,867.61.
Wall Street´s so-called 'fear gauge', the VIX, surrendered 7.14% to finish at 20.94.
US non-farm payrolls grew by 142,000 last month, comfortably below the 201,000 increase which analysts had predicted. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.1% but only because of a drop in the labor force participation rate. Workers´ average hourly earnings were flat month-on-month (consensus: 0.2%).
The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes dipped by four basis points to end the session at 1.99%.
Meanwhile, the probability of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve at its 15-16 December policy meeting dropped to 34% from 46% before the monthly employment report was released.
Analysts at Barclays and Capital Economics expect the FOMC to first raise rates in early 2016 but some at the likes of Goldman Sachs and J.P.Morgan were still reticent to completely write off the chances of a December hike.
By sectors the largest gains were to be seen in the following industrial groups: Gambling (10.96%), (Non-ferrous metals 8.15%) and (coal: 7.77%).
S&P 500 - Risers
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $63.52 +22.84%
Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR) $2.83 +13.20%
QEP Resources Inc (QEP) $13.92 +9.69%
Rowan Companies plc (RDC) $17.49 +9.59%
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $25.91 +9.56%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $7.89 +9.43%
Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) $16.66 +8.82%
Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) $33.92 +8.51%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $13.56 +8.48%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $18.19 +8.21%
S&P 500 - Fallers
CME Group Inc. (CME) $90.57 -3.42%
Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) $27.60 -3.33%
E*TRADE Financial Corp. (ETFC) $25.75 -1.76%
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) $18.68 -1.53%
Unum Group (UNM) $31.95 -1.42%
Regions Financial Corp. (RF) $8.91 -1.33%
Robert Half International Inc. (RHI) $50.34 -1.31%
Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS) $67.39 -1.20%
Delta Airlines Inc. (DAL) $44.87 -1.19%
Prudential Fincl Inc. (PRU) $75.40 -1.18%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $81.55 +4.10%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $33.08 +3.89%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $75.88 +2.46%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $45.57 +2.15%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $65.70 +2.03%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $118.83 +1.90%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $49.26 +1.88%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $100.03 +1.72%
3M Co. (MMM) $143.20 +1.70%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $30.51 +1.70%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $60.81 -0.99%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $42.84 -0.28%