Stocks Dig Out From Jobs-Related Losses

Worries about inflation put a damper on Wall Street for much of Friday, though the major indexes erased big losses from early in the day. The Dow managed to rise 34 points to 34,429, the S&P 500 fell 4 points to 4,071, and the Nasdaq fell 20 points to 11,461. All the gains and losses were well under 1%, and all three indexes saw gains for the week, per CNBC. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way with about a 2% rise for the week. Stocks have generally been on the upswing for the last month on hopes the worst of the nation’s high inflation may have passed, but Friday’s unexpectedly strong jobs report suggested that inflation remained in play.

The report showed that wages for workers rose 5.1% last month from a year earlier. That's an acceleration from October’s 4.9% gain and easily topped economists' expectations for a slowdown, per the AP. "Inflation is certainly moving in the right direction," said Adam Abbas of Harris Associates, "but the market is still going to have to go through some calibration of the risk that we level off at 3% to 4% core inflation versus a natural, steady move down to" the 2% goal set by the Fed. "After such a strong move over the last three and a half weeks," Abbas said about expectations for an easing up by the Fed, "maybe the market has gotten a little ahead of itself." (More stock market stories.)