On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index managed to finish slightly up on Friday, after a previous drop of nearly 170 points, indicating that uncertainty prevails in the market due to unclear signals from the U.S. labor market and budgetary issues in several Eurozone member states.
The Dow Jones index strengthened by 10 points, or 0.10 percent, to 10,012 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.29 percent to 1,066 points. The Nasdaq index gained 0.74 percent, reaching 2,141 points. At the beginning of yesterday’s trading, the leading indices weakened by more than 1 percent, following reports of a decline in U.S. employment in January by 20,000, while a growth of 5,000 was expected. Although it is encouraging that, contrary to expectations, the unemployment rate fell from 10 to 9.7 percent, analysts say it is evident that the labor market remains anemic.
"The drop in the unemployment rate is a good sign, but it seems that the phase of more significant employment has not yet begun. Additionally, investors have other reasons for concern," says Rob Lutts, president of Cabot Money Management. The uncertainty in the market is also a result of budgetary problems in Portugal, Greece, and Spain, where governments are trying to cut spending, but face fierce opposition from political rivals, putting these countries at risk of being unable to meet their debt obligations. "Investors breathed a sigh of relief after the recent global economic situation began to improve, thanks to fiscal and monetary measures by authorities, but now they are starting to realize that hospital bills are coming due," says Karl Mills, director at Jurika, Mills & Keifer.
