Major U.S. stock indexes finished little changed Friday after a day of mostly quiet trading capped the Standard & Poor’s 500 index’s second straight weekly gain.
Traders had a muted reaction to new data showing that U.S. employers added fewer jobs in August than expected. The report also indicated more people entered the workforce last month, wages rose more than expected and the unemployment rate remained near the lowest level in five decades.The jobs report was the latest in a mixed batch of economic data that investors scrutinized this week in search of clues about how the economy is weathering the U.S.-China trade war.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 69.31 points, or 0.3%, to 26,797.46. The Nasdaq wobbled much of the day, ending with a loss of 13.75 points, or 0.2%, to 8,103.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 5.58 points, or 0.4%, to 1,505.17.Markets have been turbulent in recent weeks as worries about the trade war have waxed and waned. Stocks slid Tuesday after expanded tariffs between Washington and Beijing kicked in and new data indicated that U.S.
Economists said Friday’s jobs report did little to change their forecasts for the Fed to cut interest rates at its meeting in two weeks. Treasury yields slipped after the report, and traders remain nearly certain the Fed will cut short-term rates by a quarter of a percentage point.