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

New York, Feb 2: 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 percent, on Friday morning, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was 0.3 percent higher, CNN reported.

Investors are closing out a week full of labour data with 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 percent last month. Wages also grew by 4.5 percent year over year, CNN reported.

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

In the past, a strong labour 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 Wall Street should treat good news as good news, CNN reported.

In corporate news, Big Tech popped after Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta beat earnings expectations Meta shares soared by about 16 percent 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 percent following an earnings beat. Apple shares, however, slid 2.9 percent after the company said sales in China had declined.