Wall Street climbed back to its best level in 20 months on Friday following a stronger-than-expected report on the US job market. The weekly gain was the sixth straight, the longest such winning streak in four years. The AP reports:
- The Dow rose 130.49 points, or 0.4%, to 36,247.87, climbing 2.37 points, or less than 0.1%, for the week.
- The S&P 500 rose 18.78 points, or 0.4%, to 4,604.37, climbing 9.74 points, or 0.2%, for the week.
- The Nasdaq rose 63.98 points, or 0.4%, to 14,403.97, climbing 98.94 points, or 0.7%, for the week.
Energy-related stocks had the biggest gain of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500, rising 1.1% as oil prices strengthened amid hopes for more demand for fuel. Carrier Global climbed 4.5% for one of the market's bigger gains after it said it agreed to sell its security business, Global Access Solutions, to Honeywell for $4.95 billion. But the worry on Wall Street is that the remarkably resilient job market could also end up giving inflation more fuel. That could push the Federal Reserve to either raise its main interest rate further or at least keep it at its highest level since 2001 for longer than expected.
That in turn could dilute the central hope driving the stock market recently: Inflation has come down enough from its peak two summers ago for the Fed to finally halt its hikes to interest rates and begin cutting them next year. "The Fed is so afraid of 'giving up before the job is done' that it will err on the side of overdoing it," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. (More stock market stories.)
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