Stocks Move Higher as Employers Add More Jobs Than Expected

NEW YORK (AP) —
U.S. stocks, stocks, markets, wall street
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

U.S. stocks are rising Friday following a jobs report that was better than most experts had expected. Bond prices fell and yields rose, which sent shares of banks and financial companies surging. Technology companies also climbed. Investors remained focused on corporate earnings. Weight Watchers climbed after reporting a strong quarter.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,476 as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18 points, or 0.1 percent, to 22,044. It is on pace for its ninth consecutive gain. The Nasdaq composite climbed 18 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,358. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gained 6 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,411.

JOB GAINS: July was the second consecutive month of strong hiring, a sign the economy is still in solid shape. However, Americans’ paychecks still aren’t growing much. The Labor Department said average hourly pay rose 2.5 percent from a year ago, the same pace as June and slower than normal for a period with very low unemployment.

Bond prices dropped and yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.27 percent from 2.22 percent as investors concluded it is more likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again later in the year.

Banks made big gains. Bank of America climbed 63 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $25. JPMorgan Chase rose $1.78, or 1.9 percent, to $94.28, and KeyCorp picked up 52 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $18.56. High-dividend stocks like utilities and phone companies traded lower.

GRUBHUB GETS TAKEOUT: Grubhub plans to buy another online food-ordering business and will pay $287.5 million for Yelp’s Eat24 unit. The companies also announced a deal that will let people reading Yelp reviews order food from restaurants that use Grubhub. Yelp climbed $8.98, or 28.6 percent, to $40.35, while Grubhub added $4.72, or 9.8 percent, to $52.97.

WATCH THIS: Weight-loss company Weight Watchers International raised its forecasts for the year after it reported a bigger profit and more revenue than analysts had expected. The company said that it had 20 percent more subscribers at the end of June than it did a year earlier. Its stock gained $8.42, or 25.5 percent, to $41.50. It’s more than tripled in value this year.

Western Union also raised its projections after it did well in the second quarter. The money-transfer company said that digital transfers climbed 25 percent, and it rose 21 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $19.79. Electronic-payment processing company Global Payments added $2.21, or 2.3 percent, to $97.36.

OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 28 cents to $49.31 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, added 29 cents to $52.30 per barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 110.83 yen from 110.06 yen. The euro fell to $1.1756 from $1.1866.

OVERSEAS: France’s CAC 40 index climbed 1.4 percent and the DAX in Germany jumped 1.2 percent. The British FTSE 100 gained 0.5 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index edged up 0.1 percent.

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