Wall Street ended Friday's session mixed as investors worked through a barrage of economic and political news that was heavily outweighed by the better-than-expected July jobs report. The S&P 500 and the Dow were able to end the trading day with gains, but the Nasdaq faltered as tech shares declined and pressured the broader market. For the week: the Dow gained 3.8%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.47% and the S&P 500 rose 2.45%
The Labor Department's monthly jobs report for July totaled an addition of 1.8 million non-farm payrolls during the month, coming above expectations of 1.48 million new jobs. However, the gain was less than June's 4.8 million addition and still marked an unemployment rate of about 10%.
Braced for the longer haul of economic recovery than once hoped, market participants were further disappointed by Congress reaching another impasse in discussion over the new economic stimulus bill that is design to keep the economy afloat. Congress is scheduled to continue talks into next week.
Adding more to market pressure, President Donald Trump issued two executive order late on Thursday that will place restrictions on Chinese social media platforms TikTok and WeChat in the U.S., affecting their respective companies ByteDance and Tencent (OTC: TCEHY). The U.S. Treasury Department also placed sanctions on 11 sanctions in China and Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
Here's how the market settled on Friday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.06% or +2.1 points to 3,351.26
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.17% or +46.36 points to 27,433.34
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.87% or -97.09 points to 11,010.98
For Major Stock News, the tech rally lost steam on Friday due to more positive economic recovery news: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) posted one of its best days since its IPO following its better-than-expected second quarter revenues and lower-than-expected quarterly loss.
For Stock Sector Performance, most industries advanced higher on Friday, with only Information Technology -1.56%, Consumer Discretionary -0.29% and Communication Services -0.05% lagging behind. The rest of the sectors increased as follows: Financials +2.18%, Utilities +1.80%, Industrials +1.73%, Real Estate +1.35%, Consumer Staples +0.53%, Materials +0.37%, Health Care +0.35%, and Energy +0.05%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) popped a surprise gain after a better-than-expected July jobs report. The dollar rose 0.662% on Friday after falling throughout the week against other global currencies. Crude oil prices fell over 1% on Friday over concerns for global economy recovery and future demand. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) fell 1.7% to $44.31 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) dropped 1.6% to $41.28 per barrel. For the week, BNO gained 2.3% and WTI rose 2.1%. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also declined on Friday, falling from its recent record rally as the July jobs report pumped more positivity into investment sentiment. Spot gold fell 1.4% to settled at $2,033.89 per ounce, but added over 3% during this weeks surge. Gold futures slumped 2% on Friday, closing at $2,028.00 per ounce.
For Monday, investors will be looking for progress towards passing the new coronavirus stimulus package in Washington, as well as other coronavirus headlines.