US open: Stocks trade higher as investors digest NFP beat

dl wall street new york city wall st nyc new york stock exchange nyse nasdaq us usa united states of america trading finance unsplash — Sharecast / Roberto Junior via Unsplash

Wall Street stocks were in the green early on Friday as investors digested key data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As of 1600 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.18% at 36,181.87, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.18% to 4,593.91 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.26% firmer at 14,377.73.

The Dow opened 64.49 points higher on Friday, extending yesterday's rally as the market found optimism in fresh labour market indicators.

Friday's primary focus was news that the US economy added more jobs than expected in November, with non-farm payrolls rising by 199,000 following an unrevised 150,000 jump in October. Analysts were expecting a 180,000 increase.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.7% in November from 3.9% the month before, versus expectations for it to remain unchanged. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% for the month and 4% on the year. The monthly jump was ahead of expectations of 0.3%, but the yearly rate was in line.

The report from the BLS comes just a day after the Labor Department revealed initial jobless claims had come in at 220,000 in the week ended 2 December, while continuing claims printed at 1.86m.

Elsewhere on the macro front, US consumer sentiment improved in December as worries about inflation receded, according to a survey released on Friday by the University of Michigan. The preliminary index of consumer sentiment ticked up to 69.4 from 61.3 in November and 59.8 in December 2022.

The current economic conditions index printed at 74.0 in December from 68.3 a month earlier and 59.6 in the same month a year earlier, while the index of consumer expectations was 66.4, up from 56.8 in November and 60.0 in December 2022.

In the corporate space, Alphabet was trading higher on the back of its Gemini AI product launch, which also boosted AI-associated stocks like Nvidia at the open.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Boeing Co. (BA) $241.70 1.84%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $42.78 1.51%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $144.53 1.48%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $260.76 1.30%
3M Co. (MMM) $104.51 1.19%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $348.40 1.10%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $115.95 0.99%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $23.09 0.79%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $250.65 0.72%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $161.27 0.66%