Tue, 03 Oct 2023

NEW YORK, New - U.S. stocks were little changed at the close Friday after a volatile week.

A labor report released Friday morning revealed payrolls increased by 263,000 in November, well ahead of analysts forecasts for 200,000.

Just one strong labor data point is not going to be enough after Powells speech, Anna Han, vice president at Wells Fargo Securities, told CNBC Friday.

Hes confirming that we are seeing the trend that we are having an impact on inflation, so I think that sort of soothes the market and takes the pressure off," Han said.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 34.87 points or 0.10 percent to close Friday at 34,429.88.

The Nasdaq Composite dipped 20.95 points or 0.18 percent to 11,461.50.

The Standard and Poor's 500 edged down 4.87 points or 0.12 percent to 4,071.70.

The U.S. dollar continued to be shunned Friday. At the end of the day the euro had swelled to 1.0533. The British pound accelerated to 1.2282. The Japanese yen was sharply higher at 134.30. The SWiss franc jumped to 0.9377.

The Canadian dollar was little changed at 1.3465. The Australian dollar rose sharply to 0.6804. The New Zealand dollar soared to 0.6405.

On overseas equity markets, the German Dax dropped 39.09 points or 0.27 percent to 14,529.39. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.03 percent. In Paris, France, the CAC 40 slid 0.17 percent.

It was a different story in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 448.18 points or 1.59 percent to 27,777.90.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 61.09 points or 0.33 percent to 18,675.35.

China's Shanghai Composite was off 9.33 points or 0.29 percent at 3,156.14.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite shed 45.51 points or 1.84 percent to 2,434.33.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 sank 12.71 points or 0.11 percent to 11,641.85.

The Australian All Ordinaries declined 50.50 points or 0.67 percent to 7,503.50.

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