US stocks open mixed following stronger-than-expected jobs report

NEW YORK: US stocks opened mixed on Friday following a stronger-than-expected jobs report and earnings beats from tech giants Amazon and Meta, a media report said.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 63 points, or 0.2 per cent, on Friday morning, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was 0.3 per cent higher, CNN reported.

Investors are closing out a week full of labour data with a January jobs report that far exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. The economy added 353,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 per cent last month. Wages also grew by 4.5 per cent year over year, CNN reported.

The news pushed Treasuries higher – the yield on the 10-year Treasury was up about 0.14 per cent, and crossed the 4 per cent threshold.

In the past, a strong labor market has worried Wall Street because the Federal Reserve has cited it as a reason to keep interest rates higher for longer. But at the central bank’s January meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the Wall Street should treat good news as good news, CNN reported.

"I think we look at stronger growth, we don't look at it as a problem. At this point, we want to see strong growth. We want to see a strong labor market. We're not looking for a weaker labor market. We're looking for inflation to continue to come down as it has been coming down for the last six months," Powell said.

In corporate news, Big Tech popped after Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta beat earnings expectations Meta shares soared by about 16 per cent after the company also announced a $50 billion share buyback program and said it would pay a quarterly dividend for the first time, CNN reported.

Amazon shares grew by 6.1 per cent following an earnings beat. Apple shares, however, slid 2.9 per cent after the company said sales in China had declined.