Analysts said Friday's sell-off could have been worse had the jobs figure not convinced some skeptics that the economic recovery, while tepid, was not in danger of collapsing. "The August jobs report fails to return us to visions of boom, but it nonetheless puts the U.S. back on a reasonable employment/income trajectory," Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at Hoenig & Co., said in a note to clients.
The sell-off may also have been eased by light volume, especially in the afternoon, as many traders left early for the holiday weekend.
Other Indicators
• The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 24.61, to 6510.44; the American Stock Exchange index rose 0.07, to 1243.17; and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 3.54, to 556.24.
• Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by 7 to 5 on the NYSE, where trading volume fell to 922 million shares, from 1.11 billion on Thursday. On the Nasdaq Stock Market, decliners outnumbered advancers by 8 to 5 and volume totaled 1.23 billion, up from 1.18 billion.
• The price of the Treasury's 10-year note fell $5.94 per $1,000 invested, and its yield rose to 4.29 percent, from 4.21 percent on Thursday.
• The dollar rose against the Japanese yen and the euro. In late New York trading, a dollar bought 110.60 yen, up from 109.46 late Thursday, and a euro bought $1.2071, down from $1.2157.
• Light, sweet crude oil for October delivery settled at $43.99, down 7 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Gold for current delivery fell to $400.50 a troy ounce, from $406.00 on Thursday, on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Commodity Exchange.
