Stocks end best week since April as jobless rate falls to 6.9%
NEW YORK — Wall Street’s best week since April is taking its first breather, and stocks were mixed on Friday following their big rally on enthusiasm about the upside of potential gridlock inWashington.
Optimism was still pumping through other areas of the market, though, and Treasury yields climbed after a report showed U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected.
The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 638,000 jobs and the unemployment rate tumbled a full percentage point to 6.9%.
The job gains were little changed from September’s 672,000 and less than half August’s 1.5 million. Yet the increase was stronger than it appears: It was held down by the loss of about 150,000 temporary Census jobs. Excluding governments at all levels, private businesses added a healthy 906,000 jobs.
“Itwas a pleasant surprise to see that the pace of the recovery hasn’t slowed down,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed, the job search website. “But we all need to keep in mind the huge hole that we’re in, in terms of jobs and unemployment.”
The upside of gridlock for markets is that it may prevent Democrats from approving measures investors feared, such as higher tax rates. But one downside is that any stimulus package would likely be less generous than if Democrats had swept the election.
“Investors are seemingly turning a blind eye to these risks, which could keep market volatility elevated near-term,” said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest.