Stocks climb to start November as traders look past weak jobs report: Live updates

Stocks rallied Friday to kick off November as Amazon led big technology stocks into the green and traders looked past a disappointing jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 332 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively.

Amazon rallied more than 6% as strength in the cloud and advertising businesses propelled the ecommerce giant above Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Intel popped 5.3% after exceeding analysts’ forecasts for revenue and offering strong guidance. The two stocks helped lift investor following some notable earnings disappointments this week.

Megacap tech stocks are still “the tail wagging the dog,” said Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage Advisory. “You’re seeing some broadening, but it’s still such a massive component right now.”

Meanwhile, the jobs report released on Friday showed the U.S. economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, far below the Dow Jones estimate of 100,000. This marked the weakest level of jobs creation since December 2020. The unemployment rate held at 4.1%, in line with estimates. However, traders were not reacting too much to the jobs figures, believing the dismal data was impacted by hurricanes and a Boeing strike.

“Friday’s jobs report showed that the labor market decelerated quite significantly in October compared to September,” said Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Bellwether Wealth. “But this was a noisy number largely due to hurricanes and labor strikes, so it’s unlikely that this weakness is going to cause the Federal Reserve to pivot away from its expected 25 basis point rate cut at the November meeting.”

In addition to the U.S. Presidential election on Nov. 5., which has led to elevated volatility, investors are also looking toward the Fed’s two-day policy meeting on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7.

The major averages are wrapping up a choppy week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which were pulled lower by post-earnings slumps in Microsoft and Meta Platforms, are down 1.2% and 1.4% for the week, respectively. Meanwhile, the Dow is marginally lower.

The strong start to November comes after a difficult October for the market.  The 30-stock Dow pulled back 1.3% in October. The broad market index fell 1% in that time, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.5%.