Futures and options traders work on the NYSE American (AMEX) floor of the New York Stock Exchange on January 7, 2026 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
of S&P500 It hit a new intraday high on Friday following the release of the latest employment data, setting the pace for weekly gains.
The broader market index was last up 0.8%, while Nasdaq Composite It rose 0.9%. of Dow Jones Industrial Average Added 240 points (0.5%).
The three major averages continue to be on track for a winning week. The S&P 500 is up more than 1% week to date, while the Dow and Nasdaq are up about 2% each.
The December employment report showed that non-farm payrolls increased by 50,000 people last month, but this was lower than the 73,000 expected by economists compiled by Dow Jones. Although the data was slightly weaker than expected, it showed the U.S. economy was still on track as investors expected growth to accelerate.
Economists had expected it to be 4.5%, but the unemployment rate has gradually declined to 4.4%. Traders took this as a sign that economic improvement was on the horizon.
Anthony Saglimbene of Ameriprise Financial believes the consensus is that the U.S. employment situation is “softening” but “remains strong,” considering the latest employment figures along with the JOLTS and ADP reports released this week. This reflects an environment with “low hiring and low layoffs,” he added.
“The potential risk is that employment could have been a little lower than expected, and that’s probably what investors were concerned about,” he said. “On the employment front, we were able to get through this week with roughly the numbers we expected, which I think is a positive thing.”
December’s statistics marked the first employment report in a month not affected by the record-breaking U.S. government shutdown. The outage created data collection challenges for the Bureau of Labor Statistics for October and November. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the full October employment report will not be released and the November report has been postponed.
“This nonfarm payrolls report is the first in recent months to show that the data is clean,” Sagrimbene said. “These numbers suggest that the Fed probably won’t need to cut rates in January, and probably won’t need to cut rates in March either.”
Stocks of homebuilders supported the broader market on Friday after President Donald Trump directed his “representatives” to buy mortgage bonds in an effort to lower interest rates for homebuyers. DR Horton rose more than 6% pluto group. lenner advanced by more than 7%. Home center stocks, etc. home depot I also got it.
