US close: Wall Street ends higher despite weak wage data
Wall Street finished the session firmly in positive territory despite the realse of a somewhat underwhelming US jobs report for October.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrials was up by 0.10% or 22.93 points at 23,539.19, alongside a gain of 0.31% or 7.99 points to 2,587.84 for the S&P 500 while the Nasdaq Composite was ahead by 0.74% or 49.49 points to 6,764.44.
According to the Department of Labor, the US economy added just 261,000 new jobs last month (consensus: 313,000).
Upwards revisions to prior months' data and an unexpected further fall in the unemployment rate to 4.1% (consensus: 4.2%) more than made up for that 'miss', yet wage growth again fell well short of forecasts, with average hourly earnings running at a 2.4% clip year-on-year versus 2.8% in the month before.
Nevertheless, Michael Gapen at Barclays wrote to clients saying: "Although some may be willing to look through the drop in the U3 rate due to the volatility in participation, we note that declines in the unemployment rate have generally held during the recovery.
"We believe the same will happen this time around as well. Hence, the risk to a substantial undershooting of the Fed's long-run unemployment rate is rising, meaning that gradual normalization should continue even amid sub-target outturns on inflation."
As an aside, the day before strategists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch had cautioned clients that their Bull&Bear indicator had risen last week to 7.3 as a result of narrower equity 'breadth' and declining inflows into bonds and equities.
"But stay long risk assets until sentiment reaches euphoric territory of 8.0," they added.
Acting as a backdrop, on Thursday night House Republicans presented their proposals for tax cuts which included a permanent reduction in the corporate tax rate from 30% to 20%.
As well, President Donald Trump nominated then current Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell - who some analysts believed might take a softer approach to financial sector regulation than Janet Yellen - to become the next US central bank chief.
In other economic news, Commerce reported that US factory orders rose by 1.4% on the month in September (consensus: 1.3%), on the back of which Barclays revised its tracking estimate for the rate of growth in third quarter US GDP from 3.1% to 3.3%.
Also making headlines, stock in Apple trade roughly 3% higher towards $172.90 after hitting an intra-day and 52-week high at $174.26, taking its market capitalisation to within a whisker of $900bn.
The smartphone-maker posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings per share and revenues of $2.07 and $52.6bn, respectively, on Thursday night. First quarter 2018 sales guidance also topped analysts' estimates.
Meanwhile, and from a sector standpoint, the best performance was put in by the following industrial groups: Medical supplies (2.73%), Computer hardware (2.15%) and Technology hardware (1.74%).
Elsewhere on the corporate front, Duke Energy posted third quarter earnings per share of $1.59 (consensus: $1.55), despite which stock in the electricity distributor finished slightly lower.
Shares in auction house Sotheby's also came under selling pressure on the heels of much weaker than forecast EPS for the latest three-month stretch of 78 cents.
Stock of Teva Pharmaceuticals on the other hand was on the front foot even after the company lowered its outlook for full-year profits and sales.
Revenues were now seen in a range of between $22.2bn and $23.2bn, respectively, with EPS between $3.77 and $3.87.
Teva had previously guided towards earnings between $4.30 and $4.50.
Dow Jones - Risers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $172.50 2.61%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $89.66 1.98%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $212.86 1.59%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $168.63 1.36%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $56.06 1.30%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $55.72 1.16%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $164.39 1.03%
General Electric Co. (GE) $20.14 1.00%
3M Co. (MMM) $232.22 0.89%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $35.55 0.82%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $46.34 -1.61%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $151.58 -1.15%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $244.40 -1.00%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $47.41 -0.88%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $83.19 -0.81%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $86.58 -0.36%
Boeing Co. (BA) $261.69 -0.34%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $114.99 -0.29%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $101.41 -0.18%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $133.32 -0.11%
S&P 500 - Risers
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $61.81 12.71%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $27.60 11.11%
Teradata Corp. (TDC) $36.09 8.41%
L Brands Inc (LB) $46.72 7.13%
Zoetis Inc (ZTS) $68.72 6.48%
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $6.32 6.22%
Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM) $78.92 6.20%
Dentsply International Inc. (XRAY) $64.80 5.95%
Broadcom Limited (AVGO) $273.63 5.45%
Fluor Corp. (FLR) $46.85 5.40%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Newell Brands Inc (NWL) $30.77 -24.95%
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $7.41 -19.28%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $13.08 -8.85%
CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $16.37 -6.24%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class C (DISCK) $15.39 -5.35%
Time Warner Inc. (TWX) $93.29 -5.18%
Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (ZBH) $109.46 -4.89%
TEGNA Inc (TGNA) $11.77 -4.85%
American International Group Inc. (AIG) $62.00 -4.59%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $16.52 -4.56%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $267.35 13.28%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $61.81 12.71%
Dentsply International Inc. (XRAY) $64.80 5.95%
Broadcom Limited (AVGO) $273.63 5.45%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $149.97 3.50%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $241.35 3.38%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $84.90 3.08%
Hologic Inc. (HOLX) $39.56 2.97%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $408.41 2.76%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $172.50 2.61%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Discovery Communications Inc. Class C (DISCK) $15.39 -5.35%
Discovery Communications Inc. Class A (DISCA) $16.52 -4.56%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $30.51 -3.51%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $63.20 -3.44%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $24.97 -3.25%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $29.60 -2.92%
Liberty Global Plc Lilac Class C (LILAK) $21.91 -2.88%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (FOX) $24.43 -2.86%
Liberty Global Plc Lilac Class A (LILA) $22.01 -1.92%
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $112.24 -1.84%