U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday to begin November on a positive note, as strong earnings from Amazon countered weak jobs data for October. All three major indexes ended in positive territory.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.7% or 288,73 points, to close at 42,052.19 points.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.4% or 23.35 points, to finish at 5,728.80 points. Consumer discretionary and technology stocks were the biggest gainers.
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) rose 1.6%. The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) gained 0.8%. However, the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) declined 2.2%. Six of the 11 sectors of the benchmark index ended in positive territory.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.8% or 144,77 points to end at 18,239.92 points.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 5.53% to 21.88. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.21-to-1 ratio. A total of 12.13 billion shares were traded on Friday, higher than the last 20-session average of 11.71 billion.
Tech Stocks Rally after Strong Amazon Earnings
Stocks rallied on Friday, rebounding from the previous day’s losses, following a robust earnings report from Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). The company reported solid growth in its cloud and advertising business which gave a boost to its revenues.
The online retailer reported third-quarter 2024 earnings of $1.43 per share, easily beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.14 per share. It posted revenues of $158.88 billion for the quarter ended September 2024, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.15%.
Shares of Amazon jumped 6.2% on Friday. Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Tech stocks rallied after Amazon reported its quarterly results. Shares of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) rose 1%, while CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) jumped 2.1%.
Weak Jobs Report Raises Concerns
Although stocks rallied on Friday, weak jobs data for October could raise fresh concerns about the economy’s health. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added only 12,000 jobs in October, sharply lower than the consensus estimate of a jump of 113,000, the weakest level of job creations since December 2020.
However, the unemployment level remained steady at 4.1%, which came in line with estimates. As of now, investors are not reacting much to the weak jobs report, as they believe multiple factors like two major hurricanes and a workers’ strike at The Boeing Company (BA) impacted job creations in October.
Markets are acting volatile ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5. Investors are also looking forward to the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting scheduled later this week, with hopes that officials will cut interest rates by another quarter percentage point.
Economic Data
In other economic data released on Friday, the Commerce Department reported that construction spending rose 0.1% in September, beating analysts’ expectations who had forecast spending to remain flat.
However, the manufacturing sector continued to decline. The Institute for Supply Management’s ISM Manufacturing PMI declined to 46.5 in October from 47.2 in September, higher than the analysts’ estimate of 47.6.
Weekly Roundup
Wall Street has been volatile over the past few weeks. A strong start to November follows a not-so-impressive October. The Dow and the S&P 500 clocked back-to-back weekly losses. The Dow ended the week down 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed 1.4% and 1.5% lower for the week, respectively.
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