U.S. stock benchmarks were trading mixed Friday morning but market internals suggest that investors on New York Stock Exchange-listed are in a buying mood. The Arms Index Arms Index, a volume-weighted breadth measure, fell to 0.466, while many on Wall Street see declines below 0.500 as suggesting panic buying. The Arms Index is calculated by dividing the ratio of the number of advancing stocks over decliners by the ratio of the volume of advancing stocks over declining volume and the Arms index often falls below 1.000, as the buyers rush into advancing stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , however, was trading lower, down 98 points, or 0.3%, at 34,986, the S&P 500 index was flat at up by less than 0.1% at around 4,479. The Nasdaq Composite Index , meanwhile, was up 0.7%, at about 13,977.
The moves come as the U.S. economy added 467,000 jobs in January and hiring was much stronger at the end of 2021 than originally estimated, the government reported Friday. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4% from 3.9%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a payrolls rise of just 150,000-and some had warned that a fall was possible due to hourly workers without paid sick leave being counted as without jobs. Analysts said investors had been prepared to look through a weak number, on expectations for a sharp reversal in February.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
