Stocks have climbed well off their worst levels of the day after coming under pressure in early trading on Friday. The major averages have significantly pared their early losses, with the Dow and the S&P 500 reaching positive territory.
Currently, the major averages are on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq is down 7.84 points or 0.1 percent at 11,883.09, the Dow is up 3.36 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 28,393.54 and the S&P 500 is up 2.79 points or 0.1 percent at 3,513.24.
The early weakness on Wall Street was partly due to profit taking following the strong upward move seen over the past few sessions.
Lingering uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election also weighed on the markets as several key states continue to count votes.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden now leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia, according to the latest numbers, suggesting the former Vice President is on track to exceed the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House.
However, President Donald Trump has claimed the increase in votes for Biden in a number of key states is proof of widespread voter fraud and pledged to take legal challenges to the results all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The early selling pressure was partly offset by a closely watched report from the Labor Department showing stronger than expected job growth in the month of October
The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 638,000 jobs in October after surging up by a revised 672,000 jobs in September.
Economists had expected employment to increase by 600,000 jobs compared to the addition of 661,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in October from 7.9 percent in September. The unemployment rate was expected to slip to 7.7 percent.
"While the drop in unemployment was again mainly driven by temporarily laid-off workers returning to their old jobs, the number of permanent job losers also fell back slightly," said Andrew Hunter, Senior U.S. Economist at Capital Economics.
He added, "That could be a crucial sign that the longer-term damage from the pandemic will not prove as severe as many had feared."
Sector News
Housing stocks have come under pressure over the course of the trading session, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 1.9 percent.
Significant weakness also remains visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index.
Natural gas, airline and oil service stocks have also shown notable moves to the downside on the day, while steel and networking stocks are adding to yesterday's strong gains.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.9 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed by 0.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have come under pressure after ending the previous session little changed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 4.6 basis points at 0.822 percent.
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