Stocks related to the U.S. economic recovery rebounded on Friday following a stronger-than-expected jobs report for July, propelling the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 towards fresh record closing highs.
"Recovery" play sectors like Financials (NYSE: XLF), Industrials (NYSE: XLI), Retailers (NYSE: XRT) and Energy (NYSE: XLE) all rose during the season, boosting broader market gains. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped amid the market rotation out of Information Technology (NYSE: XLK) stocks.
For the week, however, the Nasdaq outperformed, adding over 1%, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.94% and the Dow increased by 0.78%.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.17% or +7.42 points to 4,436.52
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.41% or +144.26 points to 35,208.51
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.40% or -59.36 points to 14,835.76
Yelp allows users to filter businesses by COVID vaccination policies:
Yelp (NYSE: YELP) announced Thursday that it is adding new options to its platform that will allow its users to filter businesses by their COVID vaccination policies, with the company letting users to search for restaurants, stores and other businesses by the categories of "proof of vaccination required," and "all staff fully vaccinated."
Yelp's Vice President of User Operations, Noorie Malik, said in a blog post announcing the new options that the company is responding to the increase in COVID infections linked to the Delta variant. Malik added that only business will be able to edit their vaccination policy and other COVID-related status updates to their Yelp pages.
United Airlines to require employees to be fully vaccinated:
United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) plans to become the first major U.S. commercial airline to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its employees, requiring all workers to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 25 or risk termination.
"We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees," United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said Friday in a memo to employees, quoted by CNBC. "But we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you're at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated."
The airline does not plan to require passengers to be fully vaccinated.
Here's how the market started trading soon after opening bell:
S&P 500 Index: +0.19% or +8.49 points to 4,437.59
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.43% or +151.48 points to 35,215.73
Nasdaq Composite Index: -0.16% or -24.06 points to 14,871.17
U.S. employers added back more jobs than expected in July:
U.S. employers added back more jobs than expected last month, with broad summer business reopenings across the country helping boost hiring.
Non-farm payrolls increased by 943,000 in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest report published Friday, topping consensus economist estimates for about 870,000. Labor market additions for June were also upwardly revised to a total of 938,000.
Leisure and hospitality employers led the month's payroll additions, totaling 380,000, with two-thirds of the job gains comping from the food services and drinking places, with 253,000 additions.
The unemployment rate also fell by a more-than-expected rate, decreasing to 5.4% from June's rate of 5.9%.