Stocks traded mostly higher Friday morning following the July 4th market holiday, with the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ and $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ pushing further into record territory as the June jobless rate came in higher than expected.
Many on Wall Street saw that as a positive for a market that wants enough economic weakness to let the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates.
The Nasdaq led the way upward rising to an intra-day record of 18349.51, before paring gains to 0.9% to 18347.04 at 1:39 p.m. in New York. The S&P 500 also touched a fresh record of 5562.47 before trading up 0.5% at 5563.10.
However, the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ bucked the trend, declining less than 0.1% to 39302.17.
Stocks mostly rose after the U.S. Labor Department reported before the bell that the American economy created 206,000 nonfarm jobs during June – slightly better than the roughly 200,000 that economists had expected.
Still, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% from May's 4% to reach its highest level since October 2021.
Wall Street is mostly looking for a weaker labor market that could pave the way for the Fed to cut interest rates. That historically benefits stocks by making bond and money-market yields fall.
The $U.S. 10-Year Treasury Notes Yield (US10Y.BD)$ eased to 4.281%, down from the previous close of 4.361% in the jobs report's wake, while the $U.S. 2-Year Treasury Notes Yield (US2Y.BD)$ shed 9.6 basis points to 4.614%.
