US stocks end week higher despite rising gloom
AFP, New York :
Wall Street stocks closed the week on a positive note thanks to a late-afternoon rally Friday, but a weak US jobs report added to worries that the economy is slowing.
The late surge lifted stocks into positive territory for the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing up 157.70 points (0.97 percent) at 16,472.37.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 20.02 (1.04 percent) to 1,951.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 21.20 (0.45 percent) to 4,707.78.
The benign tally belied the rising pessimism that the US economy will not escape the ripple effects of a slowing China and a continually sluggish Europe.
Some leading analysts still see US stocks regaining some momentum in the final months of 2015. Goldman Sachs forecasts the S&P 500 will return to 2,000 at the end of the year after suffering its steepest drop in four years in the third quarter.
But analysts expressed alarm over Friday’s jobs report. The Labor Department estimated the US economy added just 142,000 jobs in September, well below analyst estimates of 205,000. The government also trimmed its estimates for jobs added in July and August.
The jobs report “would indicate fairly strongly the US economy is slowing more significantly than expected,” said Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors.
“The word ‘recession’ is starting to come into the dialogue.” Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Capital Markets, said the weak jobs report added to other lackluster data points, such as an Institute for Supply Management reading that showed near-flat manufacturing activity in September.
“We are beginning to understand why (Fed Chair) Janet Yellen was scared to raise interest rates” at the September policy meeting, Volokhine said.
Not all of the week’s US economic data was bad. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose in September to 103.0 from 101.3 the prior month, beating market expectations for a sharp drop in confidence.
Wall Street stocks closed the week on a positive note thanks to a late-afternoon rally Friday, but a weak US jobs report added to worries that the economy is slowing.
The late surge lifted stocks into positive territory for the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing up 157.70 points (0.97 percent) at 16,472.37.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 20.02 (1.04 percent) to 1,951.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 21.20 (0.45 percent) to 4,707.78.
The benign tally belied the rising pessimism that the US economy will not escape the ripple effects of a slowing China and a continually sluggish Europe.
Some leading analysts still see US stocks regaining some momentum in the final months of 2015. Goldman Sachs forecasts the S&P 500 will return to 2,000 at the end of the year after suffering its steepest drop in four years in the third quarter.
But analysts expressed alarm over Friday’s jobs report. The Labor Department estimated the US economy added just 142,000 jobs in September, well below analyst estimates of 205,000. The government also trimmed its estimates for jobs added in July and August.
The jobs report “would indicate fairly strongly the US economy is slowing more significantly than expected,” said Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors.
“The word ‘recession’ is starting to come into the dialogue.” Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Capital Markets, said the weak jobs report added to other lackluster data points, such as an Institute for Supply Management reading that showed near-flat manufacturing activity in September.
“We are beginning to understand why (Fed Chair) Janet Yellen was scared to raise interest rates” at the September policy meeting, Volokhine said.
Not all of the week’s US economic data was bad. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose in September to 103.0 from 101.3 the prior month, beating market expectations for a sharp drop in confidence.