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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on January 31, 2024.
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CNN
—
U.S. stocks rose on Friday as investors continued to parse strong earnings results from tech companies and grim employment data, with shares of Nvidia, Metaplatform and Microsoft closing at record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 135 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% to close at a record high. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.7%. All three major indexes ended the week higher.
The U.S. economy added a staggering 353,000 jobs in January, beating economists’ expectations of 176,500 jobs last month, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday morning.
U.S. Treasury yields soared on Friday as investors parsed the report. The yield on the two-year note rose to 4.37% from Thursday’s 4.19%, according to Tradeweb.
Some investors say the continued resilience of the labor market supports the improbability of a rate cut in March. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made a similar suggestion on Wednesday after the central bank kept interest rates on hold at a 23-year high.
“Obviously, May 1st would be the earliest month for the Fed to begin cutting its key interest rates. That way, we would expect the Fed to make additional key rate cuts at its June, July, and September meetings.” are doing” Louis Navellier, chairman of Navellier & Associates, wrote in a memo Friday.
About 21% of traders expected a rate cut in March, down from 46% last week, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Tech stocks were the winners in Friday’s trading after Metaplatforms and Amazon reported strong earnings results the previous evening.
Metaplatforms stock rose 20.3% to close at a record high of $474.99 as the company announced soaring profits, a first-ever cash dividend and a $50 billion share buyback.
Amazon shares rose 7.9% after the e-commerce giant reported strong earnings for its latest quarter.
Other tech stocks also rose. Nvidia’s stock price soared about 5% to close at a record high of $661.57. Meta and Nvidia also hit new highs mid-session.
Microsoft stock rose 1.8% to a record high of $411.22.
The rise in stock prices did not extend to the overall market. The equally weighted S&P 500 index, which gives each stock an equal weight in performance, fell 0.8% on Friday.
The Russell 2000 index, which tracks the performance of small-cap U.S. stocks, fell 0.5%.
Next week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in the wake of last year’s local banking crisis.
Investors weigh clues about the health of the U.S. financial system after New York Community Bancorp’s surprise $252 million loss in fourth-quarter earnings puts regional banks back in the spotlight. will also be paying attention.
Levels may change slightly as the stock price settles after the trading day.