U.S. stocks opened mixed on Friday following a better-than-expected jobs report and better earnings from tech giants Amazon and Meta.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 63 points, or 0.2%, on Friday morning. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%.
Investors are closing out a week full of jobs data with a January jobs report that far exceeded Wall Street's expectations. The economy added 353,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7% last month. Salaries also grew 4.5% year over year.
The news sent Treasuries higher, with the 10-year Treasury yield rising about 0.14% and crossing the 4% threshold.
In the past, a strong labor market has worried Wall Street because the Federal Reserve has cited it as a reason to keep interest rates higher longer. But at the central bank's January meeting, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that Wall Street should treat good news as good news.
“I think we expect stronger growth, we don't see it as a problem,” Powell said. “Right now, we want to see strong growth. We want to see a strong labor market. We are not looking for a weaker labor market. We are looking for inflation to continue to go down as it has been going down for the last six months.”
In corporate news, Big Tech surged after Amazon and Facebook parent Meta beat earnings expectations.
Meta shares soared about 16% after the company also announced a $50 billion share buyback program and said it would pay a quarterly dividend for the first time.
Amazon shares rose 6.1% after beating results.
Apple shares, however, fell 2.9% after the company said sales in China had declined.
