US close: Dow Industrials, S&P 500 finish week at record highs
The Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 finished the week at record highs with commodity stocks pacing gains on the back of strong Chinese trade data for the month of November, even as the latest monthly jobs report revealed wage growth fell short of forecasts once again.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 0.49% or 117.68 points to 24,329.16, alongside gains of 0.55% or 14.52 points to 2,651.50 for the S&P 500 and a rise of 0.40% or 27.24 points to 6,840.08 on the Nasdaq Composite.
From a sector standpoint, the biggest gains were recorded in the following market groups: Coal (6.37%), Iron&Steel (2.48%), Drug Retailers (2.33%) and Industrial metals (2.02%).
Stoking gains in the above segments, overnight China's Customs Administration reported much stronger than expected readings on the country's exports and imports for November, including an acceleration in the pace of commodity import volumes from a 0.9% year-on-year clip in October to 6.1% last month.
In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up by one basis point to 2.38%, with the US dollar spot index up by 0.11% to 93.901 but gold down by 0.21% to $1,250.50/oz. on COMEX - a near four-and-a-half month low.
Helping to boost sentiment, the Department of Labor reported that US non-farm payrolls increased by 228,000 in November (consensus: 200,000), which was well above the roughly 90,000 monthly gain needed to keep up with new entrants into the jobs market, according to economists.
However, average hourly earnings advanced at just a 2.5% year-on-year clip last month, undershooting projections calling for a gain of 2.7%.
On the back of the data, Blerina Uruci and Pooja Sriram at Barclays Research told clients: "FOMC members view the longer run rate of UR as 4.6%, indicating that at current levels and given the continued solid increases in employment, the risk of a substantial undershooting of the Fed's long-run unemployment rate is rising.
"In our view, this suggests that gradual normalization of monetary policy will likely continue next year even amid sub-target outturns on inflation."
Also in economic news, the preliminary reading for the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index revealed a dip from 98.5 last month to 96.8 for December, as the expectations sub-index slipped from 88.9 to 84.6.
In corporate news, gun-maker American Outdoor Brands was sharply lower after the company posted a large drop in third-quarter revenues and cut its forecast for annual earnings.
Shares in food distributor United Natural Foods were a tad higher following the release of its first-quarter earnings the night before.
Elsewhere, stock in Denali Therapeutics traded slightly lower after the company priced its stockmarket float at the midpoint of its proposed pricing range.
MSG Networks ended after its Board having announced a $150m share buyback programme.
GigCapital ended flat on the day of its stockmarket debut.
Dow Jones - Risers
Boeing Co. (BA) $285.90 2.74%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $143.86 2.51%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $84.16 2.02%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $250.35 1.79%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $223.91 1.71%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $55.57 1.46%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $183.41 1.44%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $51.09 1.33%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $105.93 1.25%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $61.30 1.16%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $104.23 -1.17%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $45.31 -1.03%
3M Co. (MMM) $238.13 -0.90%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $70.73 -0.49%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $133.75 -0.34%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $96.55 -0.24%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $169.37 0.03%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $82.66 0.13%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $173.15 0.14%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $119.92 0.26%
S&P 500 - Risers
CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) $39.26 7.41%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $114.46 7.19%
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $9.75 6.56%
CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $14.67 6.00%
Mallinckrodt Plc Ordinary Shares (MNK) $22.30 4.94%
Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) $63.79 4.63%
Edison International (EIX) $71.80 4.48%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $33.22 4.33%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $14.97 4.32%
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) $118.03 4.12%
S&P 500 - Fallers
H&R Block Inc. (HRB) $27.22 -6.11%
Ball Corp (BLL) $39.60 -2.94%
General Mills Inc. (GIS) $55.84 -2.73%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $33.30 -2.57%
Campbell Soup Co. (CPB) $48.95 -2.47%
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) $3.68 -2.39%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (FOX) $32.97 -2.37%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $15.04 -2.27%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $107.16 -2.24%
DaVita Inc (DVA) $67.71 -2.15%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $114.46 7.19%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $81.47 3.98%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $143.61 3.48%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $38.67 3.48%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $106.09 3.27%
Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $148.00 3.24%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $71.55 2.79%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $251.07 2.54%
Hologic Inc. (HOLX) $42.69 2.42%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $40.49 2.30%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $33.30 -2.57%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class B (FOX) $32.97 -2.37%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $107.16 -2.24%
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $42.98 -1.78%
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $51.43 -1.66%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $29.87 -1.58%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $64.24 -1.52%
Broadcom Limited (AVGO) $259.91 -1.51%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $30.77 -1.50%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $186.46 -1.43%