Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Industrials	18491.96		72.66	0.39%
S& P 500	S& P 500 Index	2179.98		9.12	0.42%
NASDAQ	NASDAQ Composite	5249.90		22.69	0.43%

 

Stocks advance after jobs report, close higher for the week utilities lead

U.S. equities closed higher on Friday, with the three major indexes posting weekly gains, following a disappointing employment report.

" We had a jobs report slightly below expectations, but that was after two months of higher-than-expected jobs growth," said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, noting the report did not take a rate hike off the table for 2016. " The dollar is up, supporting this view. ... Some of the financial stocks are also pointing in that direction."

Investors were anxiously expecting the jobs report as they looked for more clues about whether the Fed would raise interest rates in September. Market expectations for a rate hike in September fell to 24 percent from 27 percent following the report' s release, according to the CME Group' s FedWatch tool. Expectations also fell as low as 12 percent Friday.

" Bad news is good news. This report was so terrible across the board that the market is thinking rationally the Fed ... is not going to be so cavalier as to raise rates in September," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors. He added that December is still open for a Fed rate hike.

" If I' m the Fed, I just sit on my hands, wait for December and hope for the best," he said.

The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August, with the unemployment rate coming in at 4.9 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 180,000 were added last month, while the unemployment rate remained at 4.8 percent.

In oil markets, U.S. crude settled 2.97 percent higher at $ 44.44 a barrel, amid Russian comments favoring a production freeze.

Overseas, European equities rose broadly, with the Stoxx 600 index advancing nearly 2 percent.

Gold futures for December delivery settled $ 9.60 higher at $ 1,326.70 per ounce.

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Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Industrials	18512.37		93.07	0.51%
S& P 500	S& P 500 Index	2180.33		9.47	0.44%
NASDAQ	NASDAQ Composite	5249.91		22.70	0.43%

Asian Indexes

	Index	Country	Change	% Change	Level	Last Update
	Australia ASX All Ordinaries	Australia	-40.60	-0.74%	5,470.60	2:11am ET
	Shanghai SE Composite Index	China	+4.05	+0.13%	3,067.35	3:29am ET
	Hang Seng	Hong Kong	+104.36	+0.45%	23,266.70	4:08am ET
	Mumbai Sensex	India	+59.36	+0.21%	28,482.84	4:19am ET
	Nikkei 225	Japan	-1.16	-0.01%	16,925.68	2:15am ET
	Taiwan TSEC 50 Index	Taiwan	-13.60	-0.15%	8,987.55	1:31am ET