Equities close higher as softer jobs data quiets rate-hike expectations

According to fresh market updates, US stocks advanced on Friday to ​close out the trading week after weaker-than-anticipated jobs data dampened expectations for a interest-rate gain from the The US central bank at its ‌policy meeting this month.

The Labor Department stated nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs last month, with the count for the prior two months additionally revised sharply softer, and well below the 90,000 estimate of economists polled by Reuters.

"But with that stated, a potential squeeze into the end of the year, or ​at least for the next month or two, could happen just because it's a hated surge."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 250.40 points, or 0.49%, to 51,176.96, the S&P 500 advanced 56.27 points, or 0.73%, to 7,722.72 and the Nasdaq Composite further noted 319.27 points, or 1.19%, to 27,190.86. SMALL-CAP STOCKS OUTPERFORM

Tempered expectations for an impending interest-rate gain helped lift rate-sensitive stocks ​such as the S&P 500 real estate index (.SPLRCR), opens new tab, which advanced 0.4%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 index, which advanced 0.9% to register its biggest daily ​gain in a month.

Mega-cap stocks helped lead the advance, with Nvidia up 1.3% and Tesla gaining 4.7% to put them among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500. Tesla's ‌gains helped ⁠lift the S&P 500 consumer discretionary index 1.4% as the best-performing of the 11 major S&P sectors.

A string of recent data showing resilient economic activity and a slower-than-anticipated gain in prices, along with comments from two top policymakers cautioning against another rate gain, had already led market participants to scale back expectations the current week for an October interest-rate gain.

Despite Friday's upside, both the Dow and S&P 500 recorded a fourth weekly slide in the past five, but the Nasdaq secured a weekly gain, its ​fifth in the last six.

For the week, ​the S&P 500 shed 0.27%, ⁠the Nasdaq rose 0.45%, and the Dow declined 1.26%.

Nike (NKE.N), opens new tab stumbled 3.6% as the worst performer on the Dow, after the US sportswear firm forecast a surprise steep dip in annual topline due to softness in China, announced job cuts and ​decided to shake up its global business divisions.

Shares of data storage providers declined, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both ​tumbling around 10% as ⁠the worst performers in the S&P 500 tech index. Nikkei noted that Japanese technology group Toshiba plans to double its production capacity for hard disk drives used in AI data centers within fiscal 2027.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.67-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.34-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted ⁠11 new ​52-week highs and 20 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 57 new highs and ​224 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 16.93 billion shares, compared with the 17.28 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.