It was a dizzying end of the week for market participants. Stocks had a slow start Friday thanks to a good-news-is-bad-news jobs report. However, the main indexes eventually turned tail and rallied hard on the back of well-received earnings from a pair of Big Tech giants.
Ahead of Friday's open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. added 353,000 new jobs in January, blowing past the 185,000 economists were expecting. Both the unemployment rate (3.7%) and participation rate (62.5%) were unchanged vs December, while average hourly earnings were up 0.6% month-over-month and 4.5% year-over-year.
The January jobs report is "crushing all the best-laid plans for a smooth path to Fed rate relief," says Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. And while Porter is "always cautious about reading too much into January economic stats," he notes that "there is little doubt that the U.S. economy retains much more momentum than almost anyone anticipated."
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
And with the labor market still tight, market expectations for a March rate cut have dropped to 21% from 38% one day ago, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
Meta stock booms on major dividend news
Meanwhile, Big Tech earnings gave folks plenty to buzz about too. Most notable were results from Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META). In addition to reporting higher-than-expected earnings of $5.33 per share on $40.1 billion in revenue, the company said it will start paying a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share and increased its stock buyback program by $50 billion.
"The dividend is a very big statement," says Anthony Denier, CEO of Webull, a commission-free trading platform. "It confirms the business is a cash cow and it expresses confidence in its cash flow. Also, paying a dividend opens the stock up to a lot of new investors who only invest in dividend stocks."
Additionally, the company said it will spend up to $37 billion this year on investments aimed at boosting its tech infrastructure to support additional artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
These impressive results capped off what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called a "year of efficiency" for the firm, which included cutting more than a fifth of its global workforce. They also sent META stock soaring 20.3% today – adding $204 billion in market value along the way. This is the biggest single-day gain in market value ever for a U.S. stock, according to Bloomberg. It's also equivalent to the entire market value of Dow Jones stock Cisco Systems (CSCO, 0.00%).
Amazon pops post-earnings
Fellow Magnificent 7 stock Amazon.com (AMZN) also popped after earnings, gaining 7.9% thanks to its top- and bottom-line beats.
Apple (AAPL), on the other hand, slipped 0.5% after its fiscal first-quarter results showed sales in China were down 13% vs the year prior. This is the only region that saw a year-over-year decline in sales.
As for the main indexes, the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.7% at 15,628, the S&P 500 added 1.1% to 4,958, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% to 38,654.
Related content
- ARK Invest's Cathie Wood is Searching for the Next Big Thing
- Finfluencers Are a Rising Trend. But Should You Trust Their Advice?
- Kiplinger's Earnings Calendar for This Week (Feb. 5-9)
-
I Need to Free Up $1,000 in My Monthly Budget, and I've Already Given Up Starbucks and Dining Out. What Else Can I Do?Here are some creative ways to save up to $1,000 a month, even if you feel like you've already made all of the obvious cuts.
-
Steps to Get You Through the Open Enrollment Jungle at WorkWondering how to survive open enrollment this year? Arm yourself with these tools to cut through the process and get the best workplace benefits for you.
-
Eight Steps to Help Get You Through the Open Enrollment Jungle at Work
Wondering how to survive open enrollment this year? Arm yourself with these tools to cut through the process and get the best workplace benefits for you.
-
Seven Moves for High-Net-Worth People to Make Before End of 2025, From a Financial PlannerIt's time to focus on how they can potentially reduce their taxes, align their finances with family goals and build their financial confidence for the new year.
-
I'm a Financial Planner: These Are the Seven Tiers of Retirement Well-BeingLet's apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to financial planning to create a guide for ranking financial priorities.
-
Why More Americans Are Redefining Retirement, Just Like I DidRetirement readiness requires more than just money. You have a lot of decisions to make about what kind of life you want to live and how to make it happen.
-
3 Major Changes Investors Must Prepare for in 2026A possible stock market bubble. Trump accounts. Tokenized stocks. These are just three developments investors need to be aware of in the coming months.
-
A Compelling Case for Why Property Investing Reigns Supreme, From a Real Estate Investing ProInvestment data show real estate's superior risk-adjusted returns and unprecedented tax advantages through strategies like 1031 exchanges and opportunity zones.
-
Stocks Close Out Strong Month With Solid Amazon Earnings: Stock Market TodayAmazon lifted its spending forecast as its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives create "a massive opportunity."
-
Are You Retired? Here's How to Drop the Guilt and Spend Your Nest EggTransitioning from a lifetime of diligent saving to enjoying your wealth in retirement tends to be riddled with guilt, but it doesn't have to be that way.
