US stocks surged on Friday to kick off November, with Amazon leading the way for major tech companies as traders largely overlooked a disappointing jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 288.73 points, or 0.69 per cent, finishing at 42,052.19. The S&P 500 rose 0.41 per cent to close at 5,728.80, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.8 per cent to 18,239.92.
Amazon saw a 6.2 per cent increase, driven by strong performance in its cloud and advertising sectors, which exceeded Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Intel jumped 7.8 per cent after surpassing analysts’ revenue forecasts and providing optimistic guidance. These gains helped bolster investor confidence amid a week marked by several disappointing earnings reports.
In contrast, the jobs report released on Friday revealed that the U.S. economy added only 12,000 jobs in October, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 100,000. This represented the lowest job creation level since December 2020, with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.1 per cent. Despite the weak data, traders appeared unfazed, attributing the numbers to the impact of hurricanes and a Boeing strike.
With the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 creating heightened volatility, investors are also keeping an eye on the Fed’s upcoming two-day policy meeting on Nov. 6-7.
As the major indices wrapped up a volatile week, the S&P 500 fell 1.4 per cent, while the Nasdaq dipped 1.5 per cent, weighed down by post-earnings declines in Microsoft and Meta Platforms. The Dow edged down 0.2 per cent for the week.
The promising start to November comes after a challenging October, during which the Dow declined by 1.3 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 1 per cent, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.5 per cent.
Futures
The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent gain.
Currency
One Australian dollar at 7.40am was buying 66.05 US cents.
Commodities
Gold was flat. Silver lost 0.35 per cent. Copper added 0.73 per cent. Oil gained 0.33 per cent.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed higher. London’s FTSE added 0.83 per cent, Frankfurt gained 0.93 per cent, and Paris closed 0.80 per cent higher.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 2.63 per cent , while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.93 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.24 per cent.
On Friday, the Australian share market closed 0.5 per cent lower at 8119.
Ex-Dividend
Brickworks Limited (ASX:BKW) is paying 43 cents fully franked
Dividends payable
COSOL Ltd (ASX:COS)
K&S Corp Ltd (ASX:KSC)
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap, Marketech.
