The markets enjoyed a strong day to close out a back and forth week. The Dow 30 was higher by 219, the S&P 500 closed higher by 29 and the Nasdaq 100 performed the best, adding 112. The focus was on the strong jobs report that showed the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May when analysts were only expecting 188,000. Average hourly earnings saw a bump of 0.3% and the unemployment rate moved down to 3.8%.
The financial sector (NYSE: XLF) shot higher by 1% as interest rates got a bump higher on the jobs report. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) led the way with a 1% gain and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) also joined along with a 1% gain itself.
The tech space (NASDAQ: QQQ) was the big leader of the day thanks to strong moves in the semiconductor stocks (NYSE: SMH). The leader in the Nasdaq 100 was Tripadvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP) which added over 4%, popping to new highs in the process thanks to a large option buyer. Popular semiconductor names like Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and MicroChip (NASDAQ: MCHP) all added over 3%.
Oil (NYSE: USO) continued to show some more weakness today which caused technical traders to question the support of the intermediate uptrend. The technical level of $66 was challenged again as short term traders were looking to take off risk into the weekend.
Other stocks in the news today included Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR) which added 5% after an upgrade from $40 to $43, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) which added 3%, and Ulta (NASDAQ: ULTA) which initially traded lower on earnings but rebounded into the green after announcing 100 new stores and the remodeling of 15 stores.