US stocks ended the week with a modest gain, despite being punished on Friday by a disappointing jobs report that showed growth was still limping along in the world’s largest economy.
Despite falling 63.35 points on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week up 0.59 per cent at 12,657.20 after a four-day week shortened by the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
The broader S&P 500 gained 0.31 per cent to end the week at 1343.80, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fared better, climbing 1.55 per cent to 2859.81.
Strong performers included retailer (up 6.7 per cent) and Microsoft (3.5).
Markets rallied earlier in the week in anticipation of a strong jobs number, but the Labor Department reported that unemployment was up to 9.2 per cent and that only 18,000 jobs were created in June. This triggered a sell-off.
“We’re still in an uptrend, but given the strong market that we’ve had in the past two weeks, we were due for a pullback,” said Michael James, a senior equity trader with Wedbush Morgan Securities.
This week, Wall Street’s attention will turn to corporate earnings as companies begin to report their second-quarter results.
Prominent companies set to release figures include aluminium giant Alcoa, Google, Citigroup and Sony Ericsson.
