US Stocks Dip After Jobs Report
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are trading lower Friday morning as a three-day winning streak fades. Utility companies, one of the best-performing sectors this year, took the largest losses. The market is still on track for its third weekly gain in a row.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 38 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,906 as of 10:08 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed six points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,987. The Nasdaq composite lost 18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,689. Stocks have ended higher the last two days after late-day rallies erased early losses.
JOBS REPORT: The Labor Department said employers added 242,000 jobs in February as construction, retail and health care companies kept hiring more workers. Consumer demand was solid, and the government also said employers hired more people in December and January than it had previously estimated. More people also looked for work. However, worker pay slipped last month after accelerating in January.
TAXED: H&R Block tumbled after its quarterly profit and revenue disappointed investors. The company said people are filing their taxes later and refunds are taking longer to process as efforts to fight tax fraud increase. The stock dropped $4.36, or 13.2 percent, to $28.54.
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BIG SCREEN GETS BIGGER: AMC Theaters, owned by Wanda Group of China, is buying Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 billion. The deal will create the biggest movie theater chain in the world. Earlier this year, Wanda said it would buy Legendary Entertainment, a studio that co-financed movies including "Jurassic World" and "The Dark Knight." Carmike climbed $3.97, or 15.8 percent, to $29.08.
STAPLED: Staples lost 44 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $9.43 after the office supply chain's profit and sales were weaker than expected.
HP HIGH POINT: Hewlett Packard Enterprise, an information technology products and service company, reported a stronger profit and greater sales than analysts had expected. Its stock surged $1.88, or 13.8 percent, to $15.48.
OVERSEAS: Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.5 percent and France's CAC 40 rose 0.4 percent. Germany's DAX was up 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 0.3 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.2 percent. South Korea's Kospi edged 0.1 percent lower.
OIL: The price of U.S. crude oil rose 38 cents to $34.94 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oils, rose 41 cents to $37.47 a barrel. While U.S. oil is still down significantly this year, Brent, the international standard, is now back to where it was at the beginning of the year.
U.S. oil prices are also on track to rise for the third week in a row, which hasn't happened since May.
METALS: Metals prices kept climbing. Gold rose about 1 percent to $1,275 an ounce and silver jumped almost 3 percent to $15.58 an ounce. Copper rose to $2.24 a pound.
CURRENCIES: Bond prices dipped and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.85 percent from 1.84 percent. The euro rose to $1.1022 from $1.0959 the day before while the dollar slid to 113.30 yen from 113.57 yen.
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