By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
September 3, 2010 2:57 PM EDT
US stocks pared earlier gains on Friday after a report showed that growth in the non-manufacturing sector slowed in August.
The S&P 500 Index was up 8.16 points, or 0.75 percent, to trade at 1,098.26 at 10:50 a.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 71.45 points, or 0.69 percent, to trade at 10,391.55. The Nasdaq Composite has gained 0.86 percent.
Stocks gained more than 1 percent in early trade after highly anticipated non-farm payrolls data showed that the U.S. economy added 67,000 private sector jobs in August.
The Labor Department reported that non-farm employment fell by 54,000 in August as 114,000 temporary 2010 Census workers were let go by the federal government. Economists expected a decline of 118,000 jobs.
Excluding government jobs, private payrolls rose by 67,000 in August, higher than the 30,000 gain expected and less than the revised 107,000 private-sector gains in July. Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $22.66 in August.
The unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in August, the highest level since May, from 9.5 percent in July and against analysts’ estimation of 9.6 percent.
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US non-manufacturing sector growth slowed to 51.5 percent in August from 54.3 percent in July, while analysts expected a reading of 53.20 percent. The employment index fell to 48.2 percent in August, from 50.9 percent in July.
Among the DOW components, JP Morgan, Caterpillar and American express advanced more than 1.5 percent. HP rose 1.41 percent as the company agreed to buy 3PAR for $33 per share, topping Dell's offer of $32.
The euro advanced 0.27 percent to 1.2860 against the dollar and the yen declined 0.15 percent against the greenback.
Crude futures declined 1.76 percent and copper futures gained 0.31 percent. In precious metal sector, gold futures declined 0.97 percent and silver futures fell 0.54 percent.
European stocks extended gains after jobs data and are currently trading higher with FTSE 100 up by 58.48 points, DAX30 up by 59.90 points and CAC 40 up by 53.19 points.
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