Investing.com - U.S. stocks opened largely flat Friday, as investors digested a slightly weak employment report. While the numbers came in below expectations, hopes that U.S. and China could be set to end their recent trade spat helped to dilute the disappointment.
The S&P 500 index was trading 2 points, or 0.1%, higher by 9:40 AM ET (14:40 GMT), with the Nasdaq Composite up 6 points, or 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average underperformed, dropping 12 points, or 0.1%. That said, all three indexes are just off their all-time highs.
The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, as the employment market cooled at the end of 2019.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 145,000 in December, compared with expectations for a rise of 164,000 according to economists’ forecasts compiled by Investing.com. However, let’s not forget 256,000 jobs were created in November (revised from up 266,000), and the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.5%.
This release is unlikely to push the Federal Reserve to move from its accommodative stance, particularly as average hourly earnings rose just 0.1 % for the month, versus expectations for a 0.3% rise.
The Fed cut interest rates three times in 2019, as the central bank worried about slowing growth, particularly as the globe’s two largest economic powers, the U.S. and China, engaged in a trade war.
This spat could soon be over, though, with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s chief trade negotiator set to travel to Washington early next week to sign a phase-one trade deal with the U.S..