NEW YORK: Stocks tallied small gains on Friday, lifting the Dow Jones industrials and S&P 500 to record closes, as bonds rallied and the dollar fell after the July jobs report fell short of forecasts.
Treasurys rallied after the jobs report, sending the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down 0.11 percent to 2.60 percent.
The dollar fell against the currencies of major U.S. trading partners.
The Labor Department reported the economy created 162,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast growth of 180,000 jobs and some analysts had grown even more optimistic, calling for a gain of more than 220,000.
“The jobs report was very ho-hum; it didn’t really change the narrative. The only reason people are disappointed is because expectations were raised so much,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC..
In a speech Friday afternoon, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the central bank needs to see “more data” before deciding whether to reduce its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.
Bullard is a “centrist, so to speak, so for him to say we need to wait until we get more data is not unimportant information,” Greenhaus said.
After trading lower for most of the day, stocks erased losses in the afternoon to end higher. The Dow Jones industrial average percent gained 30.34 points, or 0.2 percent, at 15,658.36, its 30th record close this year and leaving it up 0.6 percent on the week.
Ahead 1.1 percent from last Friday’s close, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 2.80 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,709.67, another record finish.
The Nasdaq composite rose 13.85 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,689.59, giving it a 2.1 percent weekly gain.
Trading in some Treasury futures contracts came to a brief halt just ahead of Friday’s jobs report after big orders hit, triggering a five-second pause, the CME Group Inc. confirmed.
Crude-oil futures for September delivery fell 95 cents Friday, or 0.9 percent, to $106.94 a barrel.