U.S. Stocks Regaining Ground Following Recent Weakness

(RTTNews) - After trending lower over the past several sessions, stocks have moved back to the upside during trading on Friday. The major averages have all moved higher on the day, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq looking to snap a five-session losing streak.

Currently, the major averages are just off their highs of the session. The Dow is up 136.29 points or 0.4 percent at 37,576.63, the Nasdaq is up 100.33 points or 0.7 percent at 14,610.63 and the S&P 500 is up 30.52 points or 0.7 percent at 4,719.20.

The rebound on Wall Street comes following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing stronger than expected job growth in the month of December.

While stock futures initially moved to the downside following the release of the data, positive sentiment prevailed as traders digested the details of the report, which also showed notable downward revisions to job growth in October and November.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment surged by 216,000 jobs in December compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 170,000 jobs.

At the same time, the increases in employment in October and November were downwardly revised to 105,000 jobs and 173,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a net downward revision of 71,000 jobs.

"A bigger-than-expected rise in December payrolls offset by a big downward revision to October and November suggests a pretty ho-hum report on balance," said FHN Financial Chris Low.

"There's no recession threat in this report, nor any reason for the Fed to worry about overheating," he added. "It is as safely down the middle as they come."

Stocks saw further upside after the Institute for Supply Management released a separate report showing U.S. service sector growth slowed by more than expected in December.

The ISM said its services PMI fell to 50.6 in December from 52.7 in November. While a reading above 50 still indicates growth, economists had expected the index to show a much more modest decrease to 52.6.

Treasury yields showed a notable downturn following the release of the report, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note turning negative after reaching a high above 4.0 percent.

Sector News

Airline stocks are extending the rebound seen in the previous session, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 2.4 percent.

Significant strength is also visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent surge by the KBW Bank Index. The index has jumped to its best intraday level in almost ten months.

A sharp increase in the price of crude oil is also contributing to considerable strength among oil service stocks, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 1.5 percent.

Brokerage, semiconductor and housing stocks are also seeing notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.9 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 0.7 percent, although Japan's Nikkei 225 Index bucked the downtrend and rose by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have turned mixed on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.4 percent.

In the bond, treasuries have shown a significant rebound after falling sharply in early trading. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.7 basis points at 3.974 percent after reaching a high of 4.099 percent.