Stocks experienced continued growth throughout trading on Friday, with the Dow joining the Nasdaq and S&P 500 in the green. At their highest points of the day, the Nasdaq increased 1.5 percent to 15,587.25, the S&P 500 grew 0.9 percent to 4,951.31, and the Dow rose 0.2 percent to 38,600.49.
This rally is a result of a positive response to the recent earnings results from the Facebook parent company, Meta Platforms, and the online retail giant, Amazon. Meta shares jumped 20.8 percent following a report of better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, the announcement of their first-ever quarterly dividend, and the authorization of a $50 billion share buyback. Amazon also saw an 8.0 percent increase after it reported fourth-quarter results that surpassed the previously estimated figures.
On top of this, traders have been responding to a report from the Labor Department, which showed a significant increase in job growth in January, beyond what economists predicted. A total of 353,000 new non-farm payroll jobs were added, compared to the initial estimation of 180,000. Additionally, the unemployment rate for January remained steady at 3.7 percent, rather than the predicted increase to 3.8 percent.
This would point to unlikely chances of an interest cut in March. Larry Tentarelli, Chief Technical Strategist at Blue Chip Daily Trend Report, views the strong job market as a "net positive for both the economy and the stock market."
Retail stocks are experiencing substantial growth due to this positive job data, causing an increase in optimism about the future of consumer spending. The Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index rose by 3.2 percent to its highest level in two years. Brokerage stocks still show considerable strength, reflected by the 1.8 percent gain of the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index.
Contrastingly, gold stocks dropped sharply after a rally on Thursday, as did the price of gold, causing a 4.0 percent drop in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. Other markets that saw downward pressure include oil service stocks, commercial real estate, utilities, and telecom stocks.
In global trading, markets in Asia-Pacific experienced variable results, with Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rising 0.4 percent, South Korea's Kospi spiking 2.9 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index dropping 1.5 percent. European markets experienced similar variance.
Treasuries experienced a significant pullback in the bond market, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves in opposition to its price, rising by 18.4 basis points to 4.047 percent.
