The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 31,148.24 on Friday with a gain of 92.38 points or 0.30%. The S&P 500 closed at 3,886.83 for a gain of 15.09 points or 0.39%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 13,856.30 for a gain of 78.55 points or 0.57%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 20.95 for a loss of 0.82 points or -3.77%.
For the week, the Nasdaq gained 6.1%, the S&P 500 gained 4.7% and the Dow Jones gained 3.9%. For the year, the S&P 500 has a gain of 3.5%, the Nasdaq is up 7.5% and the Dow Jones has a return of 1.8%.
Friday's market movers
U.S. indexes ended the week higher on Friday and posted gains for the week as well. The major indexes were higher following one of the worst week's in four months due to heavy volatility from GameStop (GME, Financial) and meme stock trading. GameStop ended with a gain of 19.58% on Friday and a loss of 81% for the week.
Investors were watching the January jobs report Friday:
- Non-farm payrolls increased by 49,000 following a decrease of 227,000 and beat the estimate of 45,000.
- Unemployment rate decreased to 6.3% from 6.7%.
- Private sector non-farm payrolls increased by 6,000 following a decrease of 204,000 but fell short of the estimate of 50,000.
- Government payrolls increased by 43,000.
- Participation rate was basically unchanged at 61.4%.
- Manufacturing payrolls decreased by 10,000 following an increase of 31,000.
- Average hourly earnings increased by 0.2% for the month and 5.4% year over year.
- Average weekly hours increased to 35 from 34.7.
In other news:
- The House got approval to continue advancing a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan
- The December balance of trade report showed a deficit of $66.6 billion. Exports were $190 billion and imports were $256.6 billion.
- The Baker Hughes weekly oil rig count showed an increase of eight rigs in the U.S., a decrease of three rigs in Canada and an increase of 12 rigs internationally
- Consumer credit outstanding increased by $9.73 billion following an increase of $13.93 billion.
Across the board:
- Biotech and materials led gains.
- AstraZeneca (AZN, Financial) was down approximately 1%, but reported its vaccine effective against the U.K. Covid variant.
- Meridian Bioscience (VIVO, Financial) +22.86%
- Seagen (SGEN, Financial) +15.23%
- Activision Blizzard (ATVI, Financial) +9.64%
- Zoom (ZM, Financial) +7.59%
- The 10-year Treasury ended with an annualized yield of 1.173%.
Small-cap stocks
In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 2,233.33 for a gain of 30.91 points or 1.40%. The S&P 600 closed at 1,252.75 for a gain of 14.47 points or 1.17%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 15,529.07 for a gain of 207.60 points or 1.35%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 9,856.37 for a gain of 86.77 points or 0.89%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 2,476.67 for a gain of 24.34 points or 0.99%; the S&P 100 at 1,790.11 for a gain of 6.17 points or 0.35%; the Nasdaq 100 at 13,603.96 for a gain of 43.07 points or 0.32%; the Russell 3000 at 2,350.17 for a gain of 12.68 points or 0.54%; the Russell 1000 at 2,204.27 for a gain of 10.49 points or 0.48%; the Wilshire 5000 at 41,025.30 for a gain of 201.65 points or 0.49%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 724.80 for a gain of 4.01 points or 0.56%.
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