The US markets made another mixed closing on Friday following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing that US employment rose by much less than expected in the month of December. The report stated that non-farm payroll employment edged up by just 74,000 jobs in December compared to estimates for an increase of about 200,000 jobs and reflected a substantial slowdown from the upwardly revised increase of 241,000 jobs in November. However, the Labor Department said the US unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent in December from 7.0 percent in November. The drop pulled the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since October of 2008. In another economic report from the Commerce Department, the wholesale inventories rose by 0.5 percent in November to $516.4 billion. The mixed data generated some uncertainty about the outlook for the Fed's future monetary policy decisions.
However, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the central bank was unlikely to react to one month's jobs report, and that the Fed was likely to continue to taper, a process that began this month as the Fed cut to $75 billion its monthly bond purchases.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down by 7.71 points or 0.05 percent to 16,437.05, the Nasdaq gained 18.47 points or 0.44 percent to 4,174.66 and the S&P 500 was up by 4.24 points or 0.23 percent to 1,842.37.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Friday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.14%, Wipro was up by 0.37%, Tata Motors was up by 0.37% and Infosys was up by 3.35%. On the other hand ICICI Bank declined by 0.11%.
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