Stocks Rise As Unemployment Rate Rises As Well – Acadiana Business Index

Markets held their gains into the closing bell. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

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• The Dow Jones added 217 points in the session to close at 13,096. The S&P 500 gained 26 points to 1391 and the NASDAQ advanced 58 points to end at 2968. For the week, the Dow Jones gained 0.2%, the S&P 500 was up 0.4%, and the NADAQ ended in the green by 0.3%.
• Stocks rallied from the opening bell following mostly positive economic reports.
• Looking at the data, payrolls expanded more than expected in July, while the unemployment rate ticked modestly higher to 8.3%. In addition, the ISM non-manufacturing index unexpectedly rose to 52.6, topping expectations of a small decline.
• All 10 sectors on the S&P finished higher, led by a rally in financial stocks. Shares of JP Morgan gained 92 cents to $36.09 and Bank of America added 25 cents to $7.43. Energy stocks also showed strength as crude oil jumped $4.10 to $91.23 per barrel. Shares of Exxon advanced $1.67 to $87.55. On the earnings front, Viacom ended $1.37 higher to $47.20 and CBS added $2.02 to $35.06 after both companies posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
• Composite volume on the NYSE was 3.7 billion shares with advancing issues besting decliners by a margin of 5-1. The NASDAQ was 10-3 positive on issues.
• Looking at fixed income, Treasuries are lower along the curve. The 10-year note is down 25/32 to yield 1.57% and the 30-year bond is off over 2 full points to yield 2.65%.

For the complete report, Ken’s Market Report.