(Sharecast News) – Wall Street trading began on a mixed note on Friday as market participants digest the latest nonfarm jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As of 1550 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.03% at 31,033.30, while the S&P 500 was 0.36% firmer at 3,817.43 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.78% stronger at 13,169.72.
The Dow opened 7.83 points lower on Friday, cutting into gains recorded in the previous session despite civil unrest in Washington after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building.
Traders were firmly focussed on the monthly nonfarm jobs report for December, with US nonfarm payrolls falling by 140,000 in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, missing market expectations for an increase of 71,000 by a considerable margin.
Last month’s decline, driven by a 498,000 drop in employment in the leisure and hospitality sector, follows an increase in November’s reading of 336,000.
While the Dow was in the red, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were trading higher despite the anarchy in Washington earlier in the week that delayed the congressional confirmation of Presidential-elect Joe Biden’s victory after the Democrats won two key Senate races in Georgia.
Overnight, Donald Trump also acknowledged that a new administration would be heading into the White House on 20 January for the first time since the election back in November. However, the incumbent later stated he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration.
Elsewhere on the macro front, wholesale inventories were flat in November, dipping just 0.1% to beat estimates for a steeper drop, according to the Commerce Department, adding weight to predictions that inventory investment would be the principal driver of economic expansion in the fourth quarter.
Still to come, November consumer credit change numbers will be released at 2000 GMT.
As far as the pandemic is concerned, the US has now recorded more than 22.15m cases of the coronavirus, claiming the lives of more than 374,391 Americans in the process, with more than 4,000 of those deaths occurring on Thursday alone – a new single-day record.
No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Friday.
