By Abigail Summerville
(Reuters) – Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Friday, recovering from the previous day's sell-off, as strong earnings from amazon offset a significant drop in U.S. job growth in October.
amazon.com (NASDAQ rose 6.2% after it reported earnings on Thursday that revealed strong retail sales, pushing earnings above Wall Street estimates.
Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ fell 1.2% as investors worried about a drop in its sales in China during its most recent quarter.
Other members of the so-called Magnificent Seven, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ and Microsoft (NASDAQ ), also reported earnings earlier this week and warned about ai-related infrastructure costs, dragging the Nasdaq lower on Thursday.
“A new month often seems to offer new optimism to investors, especially after we saw a sharp decline yesterday, and after seeing encouraging results from Apple and amazon,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
Stock markets shrugged off weak US nonfarm payrolls data for October, given disruptions from hurricanes and strikes. The data showed an increase of 12,000 jobs, much smaller than economists' estimate of an increase of 113,000.
However, the unemployment rate remained stable at 4.1%, reassuring investors that the labor market remained on solid ground.
After the jobs data was released, investors largely stuck to their bets that the central bank would cut rates by 25 basis points in November.
“Third quarter earnings, interest rates and the election remain the main drivers in the near term,” Stovall said.
They rose 288.73 points, or 0.69%, to 42,052.19, gained 23.35 points, or 0.41%, to 5,728.80 and gained 144.77 points, or 0.80%, to 18,239.92.
All three indexes fell for the week overall, with the S&P 500 down 1.38%, the Nasdaq down 1.51%, and the Dow down 0.16%.
The US election is on investors' minds, with many analysts predicting a close presidential race and some uncertainty about the final outcome. The Federal Reserve's November meeting begins the next day.
amazon.com's earnings lifted the Consumer Discretionary index 2.4% to a more than two-year high, while utilities and real estate stocks fell the most by sector.
Intel (NASDAQ rose 7.8% after a better-than-expected revenue forecast. An index of chip stocks rose 1%.
Chevron (NYSE:) shares rose 2.8% after the company beat third-quarter earnings estimates due to higher oil production.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1.21 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. There were 88 new highs and 93 new lows on the New York Stock Exchange.
The S&P 500 recorded ten new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 67 new highs and 123 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 12.13 billion shares, compared to the average of 11.71 billion for the entire session over the last 20 trading days.
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