The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower in afternoon trading Friday after job growth in December came in stronger than expected. Apple edged lower after a couple of downgrades earlier in the week. AAPL stock, down 5.5% for the week, is trying to hold support at its 40-week moving average near 181 a share.
Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Boeing and Home Depot outperformed in the Dow Jones with gains of around 1%.
CAT stock is holding up well as it tries to clear a 19-week consolidation. HD stock is holding above its 21-day line with a 354.92 entry in play. After topping a 38.88 entry earlier in the week, VZ stock is up 6% for the week. Goldman Sachs led a rally in financial stocks ahead of a busy week of earnings in the financial sector.
Chevron edged higher in the Dow Jones today with WTI crude oil futures up 2.5% to near $74 a barrel.
The Dow Jones industrials turned flat in recent action, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was on pace to snap a five-session losing streak, but remains on track to snap nine straight weeks of gains. The index is down nearly 3% so far this week. The S&P 500 also rallied 0.3% and is down 1% for the week.
Bitcoin was down 1.7% to around $43,400 as Wall Street awaits possible approval for the first spot bitcoin ETF. Current bitcoin-related ETFs like GBTC and BITO are tied to futures contracts.
Bitcoin-related stocks were a mixed bag. Crypto exchange Coinbase edged lower, while bitcoin miner Marathon Digital slumped nearly 10%.
Volume on the Nasdaq was 8% higher compared to the same time Thursday. New York Stock Exchange volume was up 9%. Advancers had a slight edge over decliners on both exchanges.
The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls increased by 216,000 in December, well above the 164,000 consensus. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, but job growth in October and November was revised sharply lower. Meanwhile, wage growth came in hotter than expected.
Outside The Dow Jones Index
The iShares Russell 2000 ETF turned higher after falling 0.8% intraday. IWM inched up 0.1%.
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The 10-year Treasury yield didn't have any problems punching through the 4% level after the jobs data. The yield jumped to an intraday high of 4.10% and was recently trading around 4.03%, up 4 basis points, as Wall Street dials down Fed rate-cut expectations in coming months. At one point, CME FedWatch put the chances at better than 80% for the first rate cut at the March meeting. Now, the chances are around 56%.
Nasdaq-listed Moderna was a big gainer in the stock market today, up around 5%. Earlier this week, Oppenheimer upgraded shares to outperform, citing an improved revenue outlook.
Inside the MarketSmith Growth 250, Palantir's downtrend accelerated after Jefferies downgraded the stock to underperform from hold, citing valuation among other things. Shares slumped 6% early, but PLTR shaved the loss to 2%.
Headed into Friday, Palantir was selling at 77 times trailing earnings and 56 times forward earnings. PLTR still gets a premium valuation even after shares slumped 14% in December.
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Jefferies also downgraded Okta, a laggard in the security software group, to hold from buy. Other security software stocks continue to lead the market, including CrowdStrike, CyberArk and Leaderboard stock Zscaler. ZS joined the Leaders list in late September
MarketSmith Growth 250
While the Dow Jones delivered several strong gainers, a couple of enterprise software stocks outperformed in the MarketSmith Growth 250, including Snowflake, Monday.com and Datadog. All three were up 3% to 4%.
Costco gapped up and rose 1.5% after the company said December sales jumped nearly 10% year over year to $26.15 billion.
Follow Ken Shreve on Twitter @IBD_KShreve for more stock market analysis and insight.
