US stocks were slightly lower on Friday as investors were pulled in a tug-of-war between strong domestic data and continued concerns about Europe's debt crisis. The US economy added 200,000 jobs in December, topping forecasts, and the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent, a near three-year low.
The data followed strong employment reports on Thursday, and recent bullish readings on housing and manufacturing. Fitch cut Hungary's credit rating to junk in the latest reminder of contagion tied to the region's debt crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 38.15 points, or 0.31 percent, at 12,377.55. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 2.01 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,279.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.49 points, or 0.21 percent, at 2,675.35.
For the week, the Dow is up 1.3 percent, the S&P is up 1.7 percent, and the Nasdaq is up 2.7 percent. Most of the gains came from cyclical sectors tied to growth, including financials and energy. Those were among the weakest on Friday, with the S&P financial sector off 0.6 percent and the S&P energy index off 0.5 percent. Goldman Sachs Group Inc fell 1.1 percent to $93.53 after J.P. Morgan cut its stock target and Bernstein forecast a challenging year for the investment banking giant.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.