U.S. stocks increased Friday after the Labor Department's November jobs report exceeded expectations. Energy also grew as the week came to a close following the increase of oil prices after this week's OPEC meeting members agreed to reduce oil production by an additional 500,000 barrels per day in 2020, which will bring the total output reduction to 1.7 million barrels per day.
Here's how the U.S. market closed for the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
In U.S. Economic News, far more jobs than expected by consensus economists were added to the United States' labor force in November and the joblessness rate dropped to a 50-year low. The change in non-farm payrolls was +266,000 vs. the 180,000 that was expect by economists and an over 100% increase from October's 156,000. The unemployment rate lowered to 3.5% from October's rate of 3.6%.
In Stock Sector News, most sectors rocketed upward. The leaders were Energy with an increase of +2.00%, Financials +1.35%, Industrials +1.26%, Information Technology +1.12%, Materials +1.02%, Consumer Discretionary +0.81%, Communication Services +0.63%, Health Care +0.62%, Consumer Staples +0.37%, and Real Estate +0.10%. The only sector that saw share losses on Friday was Utilities, with a decline of -0.22%.
Lastly, in Currency and Commodity News, Oil saw a sharp increase to close out the week. West Texas Intermediate's barrel prices rose over +1.20% and Brent Crude's prices shot upward almost +1.60%. U.S. Natural Gas however took a steep dive, with the Henry Hub reducing over -2.80%. Gold prices also increased from Thursday's drop. Finally, the U.S. Dollar saw an increase, boosted by the recent positive economic results. The DXY Index saw a climb of +0.30%.
