Description
Wall Street is getting its own kind of reprieve Friday, and U.S. stocks are coasting toward the close of a brutal week after a nervously anticipated economic report came in close to expectations.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading following a punishing stretch where it swung at least 1%, up or down, in each of the last six days. It’s on track for its worst week since September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 47 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:15 a.m., and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
The market’s focus was on the job market, where the U.S. Labor Department said employers added 151,000 more jobs last month than they cut. That was slightly below economists’ expectations, but it was still an acceleration from January’s hiring.