Investing.com - Wall Street struggled for direction on Friday as the market considered a fall in U.S.unemployment rate to a level not seen since 1969, but also a worse-than-expected rise in nonfarm payrolls.
The S&P 500 was about flat, down 0.85 point, or 0.03%, to 2,900.76 as of 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT), while the Dow fell 7.68 points, or 0.03%, to 26,619.80 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 22.67 points, or 0.29% to 7,856.84.
The U.S. economy created fewer jobs than expected in September, but unemployment reached a 48-year low, indicating the economy was nearing full employment. Meanwhile, expectations for a Federal Reserve rate increase in December rose slightly to 77.7%.
After the data release, the yield on the benchmark United States 10-Year Treasury note jumped to 3.227%, a level not seen since 2011.
Medical marijuana firm Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) was among the top gainers, rising 4.63%, while Snap (NYSE:SNAP) rose 1.03% after a report that its CEO set a profitability goal for 2019. Meanwhile, General Electric (NYSE:GE) gained 3.50% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched up 0.15%.
Elsewhere, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 3.49% after CEO Elon Musk criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission in a controversial tweet. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dipped 0.29%, while Costco (NASDAQ:COST) decreased 2.73%.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX slumped 111 points, or 0.91%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 42 points, or 0.79%, and in London the FTSE 100 was down 78 points, or 1.06%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 21 points, or 0.63%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 fell 51 points, or 0.55%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.41% to $1,206.50 a troy ounce while crude oil futures were flat at $74.33 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.14% to 95.30.