NEW YORK — U.S. stocks on Friday closed mostly higher to end with weekly gains after a day of choppy trade as investors pulled the plug on an early rally sparked by fewer job losses than expected and central bank liquidity moves.
“It’s a Friday phenomenon that is difficult to articulate with a fundamental backdrop because it’s entirely psychological,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
Far off its early highs that had the Dow Jones industrial average up 120 points at the start, the Dow gained 48.2 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 13,058.20, up 1.3 percent on the week, with 21 of its 30 components settling in the green.
Explaining the early move up, Cantor Fitzgerald U.S. market strategist Marc Pado said: “I would say it is 70 percent the jobs number, showing slow growth versus recession. The Fed liquidity plan is good but something that is almost expected.”
At Jefferies, Hogan said, “The story is the same — we had a pretty good run on better-than-expected earnings on balance and the moves in monetary policy that we wanted. And then Friday rolls around, and we become more risk-adverse and take profits. It’s a pattern we’ve noticed the last 10 weeks. Friday is all-bets-off day.”
Top gainers on the Dow industrials included American International Group Inc. and DuPont, both up 1.9 percent.
American Express Co. was among the blue-chip decliners, off 1.8 percent.
The S&P 500 gained 4.56 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,413.9, giving it a 1.1 percent weekly rise. Energy led advancing sectors on the S&P, up 1.9 percent, followed by financials, up 1.1 percent. Declining S&P sectors included health care, off 0.5 percent, and consumer staples, down less than 0.3 percent.
The technology-laden Nasdaq composite fell 3.72 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,476.99, a weekly gain of 2.2 percent.
Sun Microsystems Inc. weighed on the tech sector, its shares dropping 22.6 percent after the server-and-software company on Thursday reported a third-quarter loss of $34 million and only broke even before one-off costs. The result was well below the 18 cent-a-share profit expected by analysts.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange neared 3.9 billion, with advancers outpacing decliners by roughly 9-to-7. On the Nasdaq, almost 2.3 billion shares traded hands, and declining issues edged ahead of those advancing by about 4-to-3.
In commodities trading, oil futures rose $3.80 to close at $115.632 a barrel.
The nation’s job losses narrowed in April, as nonfarm payrolls dropped by 20,000, far fewer than the 75,000 decline that had been anticipated.
Just ahead of the Labor Department payrolls report, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it was increasing by 50 percent the amounts auctioned to eligible depository institutions and for the first time would accept bonds backed by auto loans and credit cards.
