US markets settle higher on Friday

05 Dec 2020 Evaluate

The US markets settled higher on Friday despite the release of a report from the Labor Department showing much weaker than expected job growth in the month of November. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment rose by 245,000 jobs in November after jumping by a downwardly revised 610,000 jobs in October. Street had expected employment to increase by 469,000 jobs compared to the addition of 638,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate dipped to 6.7 percent in November from 6.9 percent in October. The unemployment rate was expected to edge down to 6.8 percent.

However, the bigger than expected drop in the unemployment rate came as a 400,000-person decline in the labor force far outpaced the 74,000-person drop in the household measure of employment. Continued optimism about coronavirus vaccines may be helping traders shrug off the disappointing jobs data, as the slowdown in job growth came amid the recent surge in new cases and subsequent restrictions. Besides, energy stocks continue turned some of the market's best performances on the day, benefiting from an increase by the price of crude oil.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 248.74 points or 0.83 percent to 30,218.26, Nasdaq gained 87.05 points or 0.70 percent to 12,464.23 and S&P 500 was down by 32.40 points or 0.88 percent 3,699.12.

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