US stocks rise for the week, despite jobs data

NEW YORK: US stocks ended the week with a modest gain, despite being punished on Friday by a disappointing jobs report that showed growth was still limping along in the world's largest economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.59 percent to close at 12,657.20 after a four-day week shortened by the July 4 Independence Day holiday.

The broader S&P 500 gained 0.31 percent to end the week at 1,343.80, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fared better, climbing 1.55 percent to 2,859.81.

Markets rallied earlier in the week in anticipation of a strong jobs number, but then the Labor Department reported that unemployment was up to 9.2 percent and that only 18,000 jobs were created in June, triggering a sell-off.

"We're still in an uptrend, but given the strong market that we've had in the past two weeks, we were due for a pullback," said Michael James, a senior equity trader with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

For the time being, worries about the Greek debt crisis have eased and are not weighing on the market, James added.

Next week, Wall Street's attention will turn to corporate earnings as companies begin to report their second-quarter results.

Prominent companies set to release earnings include aluminum giant Alcoa, on Monday; Google and JPMorgan Chase, on Thursday; and Citigroup and Sony Ericsson, on Friday.

Corporations seem to be in good shape and are ready to put the problems of the second quarter behind them, which could send the stock market higher, said

Marc Pado, US market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald.

"Companies are well positioned, they have low inventories, they have a lot of cash, they kept their employment costs low," Pado said.

Strong performers this past week included retailer Target, which rose 6.7 percent, and Microsoft, which gained 3.5 percent.

Bank stocks underperformed, with Bank of America down 3.5 percent, JPMorgan

Chase down 2.0 percent and Goldman Sachs down 1.9 percent for the period.

One of the week's biggest winners was Netflix, which gained 10.1 percent as it announced plans to extend its online film- and television-distribution service to Latin America.

Among the big losers was News Corp., which plunged 7.3 percent as it faced anger and investigations over allegations that its British tabloid News of the

World had hacked the phone of a murdered girl and dead soldiers.

After a political and public uproar, News Corp -- which is hoping for British regulatory approval to buy the 61 percent of broadcaster BSkyB that it doesn't own -- announced Thursday that it would close News of the World at the end of the week.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011