US stocks were little changed at the close of a choppy session on Friday after the release of June employment data that beat expectations.
The US economy added 372,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.6 percent last month, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.
All three major indexes closed close to balance after struggling for direction for much of the trading day, but ended the holiday-shortened week in the green. The benchmark S&P 500 and Dow were nearly 0.1% below the flat line, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.1% in the green.
Treasury yields were higher, with two-year yields rising to 3.11%, further inverting the yield curve; 10-year yields were trading near 3.01%.
Investors appeared to take Friday’s stronger-than-expected jobs data as a sign that the Federal Reserve will remain steadfast in its plans to aggressively raise interest rates, with another increase of 0.75 % of its reference rate probably by the end of this month.
Economists polled by Bloomberg had expected payroll gains to come in at 268,000 last month, the smallest since the pandemic recovery but well above the average of about 164,000 a month before COVID-19 throughout 2019. The unemployment rate was expected to remain stable at 3.6%.
“June’s jobs report reassuringly showed that despite growing recession concerns, the labor market remains strong,” wrote US economist Kathy Bostjancic, head of Oxford Economics. in a note to clients following the report.
GameStop stock (GME) was one of the big movers on Friday after the video game retailer said ceased its financial director Michael Recupero and revealed plans to reduce its workforce as part of a turnaround effort by the company.
Shares closed up nearly 5%, a day after achieving a 15% gain. following an announcement earlier this week, the company approved a four-for-one stock split.
shares of Levi Strauss (LEVI) rose 1% after the company reported fiscal second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates. The denim maker said it earned 29 cents a share on revenue of $1.47 billion, slightly more than the 23 cents a share on revenue of $1.43 billion that analysts had expected, data showed from Bloomberg.
Twitter shares (TWTR) fell 5.1% after the the Washington Post reported Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter was “in jeopardy,” citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter. One of the people told the newspaper that Musk’s team “has stopped participating in certain discussions about financing” for the acquisition.
On the global front, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe he was killed during a campaign event Friday. In Japan, the Nikkei index undo much of their previous gains to finish almost flat after the news. The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.1% at 26,517.19 after rising as much as 1.4% earlier in the session.
A man watches a television broadcast showing news of the attack on former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe early in the day, along a street in Tokyo, July 8, 2022. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU /AFP via Getty Images)
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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