Wall Street gave a big thumbs-up to the May jobs report, responding by driving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrials Average to new record highs after the Labor Department reported U.S. employers added 217,000 new jobs last month. Although the number of new jobs barely beat street estimates, investors were cheered by the jobs market recovering to pre-recession levels and continuation of a 6.3% jobless rate versus expectations for a slight uptick to 6.4%.
European markets also were higher in tandem with the broad market gains in the U.S., closing at six-year highs led by gains in banking stocks in the aftermath of Thursday's ECB rate cut. The FTSE, however, continued to lag other regional indices following the Bank of England's decision yesterday to stand pat on interest rates. Although a change in UK interest rates was not expected, the financial markets rewarded other EU nations as the impact from a more accommodative central bank will likely affect Europe unevenly.
Crude oil was down $0.06 to $102.43 per barrel. Natural gas was up $0.02 to $4.72 per 1 million BTU. Gold was down $1.20 to $1,252.10 an ounce, while silver was down $0.09 to $19.00 an ounce. Copper was down $0.05 to $3.04 per pound.
Among energy ETFs, the United States Oil Fund was down 0.19% to $37.47 with the United States Natural Gas Fund was up $0.89% to $26.12. Amongst precious-metal funds, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF was down 0.36% to 22.57 while SPDR Gold Shares was down 0.09% to $120.55 The iShares Silver Trust was down 0.08% to $18.24.
Here's where the markets stand at mid-day:
NYSE Composite Index up 49.33 (+0.45%) to 10,897.02
Dow Jones Industrial Average up 67.08 (+0.40%) to 16,903.19
S&P 500 up 7.74 (+0.40%) to 1,948.20
Nasdaq Composite Index up 20.96 (+0.49%) to 4,317.19
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Nikkei 225 Index up 2.17%
Hang Seng Index down 0.69%
Shanghai China Composite Index down 0.54%
FTSE 100 Index up 0.66%
CAC 40 up 0.71%
DAX up 0.40%
NYSE SECTOR INDICES
NYSE Energy Sector Index up 0.76%
NYSE Financial Sector Index up 0.68%
NYSE Healthcare Sector Index down 0.03%
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) CMTL (+13.79%) Q3 tops street; raises FY14 outlook above estimates; maintains quarterly dividend
(+) MY (4.29%) Jiangsu Mingyang Wind Power Technology unit has won approval to develop and operate a 300MW offshore wind power project
(+) GWPH (8.07%) Reported a wider loss on lower sales.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) SHOS(-8.76%) Q1 profit drops on weak sales
(-) TOPS (-36.38%) Priced 10 million new shares at $2
(-) RALY(-27.99%) Deutsche Bank downgrades to Hold, cut PT in half after Q2 results
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
