New York: Wall Street stocks rode a solid jobs report to fresh records Friday, with technology shares especially sky-bound following strong Apple earnings and a report of a possible semiconductor chip merger.
All three major indices ended at records, with the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rising 0.7 per cent to close the week at 6,764.44.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent to end at 23,539.19, its second straight record, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 2,587.84.
Apple, the biggest US company by market capitalisation, saw its shares jump 2.6 per cent after reporting quarterly net profits rose 19 per cent from a year ago to $10.7 billion on the back of strong iPhone sales.
The big earnings report came as Apple’s latest smartphone, the iPhone X, hit the stores, drawing long lines of anxious customers in some cities.
Apple is one of the last big companies to report in an earnings season that many analysts view as strong.
“It’s extremely positive, especially considering what could have happened because of the hurricane effects at a business level,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm shot up 12.7 per cent following a report in the Wall Street Journal that fellow chip company Broadcom planned an unsolicited takeover bid. Broadcom shares rose 5.5 per cent.
Other large tech companies to gain included Amazon, which rose 1.6 per cent and Tesla Motors, which advanced 2.3 per cent, despite its disappointing results.
Job numbers
In other good news, the US economy added 261,000 new jobs last month as businesses reopened in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The headline jobs figure was solid, and the prior two months were revised upward.
The jobless rate fell to 4.1 per cent, the lowest the US economy has seen since December 2000.
Sentiment was further lifted by an Institute for Supply Management report that showed record growth in the services sector in October. The jump came on expansion in 16 of the 18 industries surveyed, with only educational services and entertainment and recreation slowing.
The ISM report “provides another indicator that suggests the economy has started the fourth quarter on a strong note,” John Ryding of RDQ Economics said in an analysis of the data.
