The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell on Friday after an unexpected surge in jobs last month spiked bond yields and reaffirmed to investors the Federal Reserve would continue with its plan to raise interest rates as soon as March.
The 30-stock index settled 81.56 points by noon EST to 35,029.60.
The S&P 500 recovered 10.68 points to 4,488.12
The NASDAQ jumped 147.27 points midday, or 1.1%, to 14,026.09.
For the week, the Dow picked up 0.4%, and S&P was ahead 0.7%. The NASDAQ has gained 1.2% week-to-date. If these gains hold, they would mark the second weekly advances of 2022 for the major averages — which were under pressure last month as worries of higher interest rates dragged down tech names.
To be sure, continued strength in earnings mitigated some of the losses in the Dow and S&P 500 and lifted the NASDAQ. Amazon jumped 12% on Friday, while Snap rocketed up around 47% the day after reporting earnings. Pinterest rose about 4%.
Wall Street was coming off a horrid session in which a plunge in Meta shares dragged megacap tech stocks lower. Meta shares suffered their worst day ever on Thursday, dropping 26.4% on the back of disappointing quarterly earnings.
The January jobs report showed a 467,000 gain in payrolls. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected a minor gain of 150,000, and some economists predicted a large decrease. Economists had cautioned before the report it could be noisy because of an omicron wave hitting while the survey was taking place.
Prices for 10-year Treasurys sagged, hiking yields to 1.92% from Thursday’s 1.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices hiked $2.45 to $92.72 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were positive $2.90 to $1,807.00 U.S. an ounce.